by Jeff Miller of Artisan Family of Wines (Seven Artisans, Sly Dog Cellars, Red Côte Rosé)
It’s pretty much accepted wisdom that hillsides produce the best wine grapes. But like so much of the accepted wisdom in the wine world, it doesn’t necessarily jive with the real world.
My own personal experience with hillside vineyards hasn’t been a happy one. Our vineyards lie mostly on valley floors, but one of our vineyards has a hillside block. I had always hoped to get excellent fruit from this section, but never did. It suffered from several problems. First, it was planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, which probably requires a cooler growing environment than this west facing slope provides. It also suffered from salinity problems, due in large part to the fact that rain runs off the slope, instead of sinking in and washing away the salts.
It suffered from yet another problem, one common to hillside vineyards. The soil changes dramaticially from one part of the vineyard to another. Swales have different soil depths than do other parts of the vineyard. It’s difficult to get the vineyard consistency that is best for wine grapes. To some extent, this can be addressed by heroic measures that, in essence, tailor the grapegrowing small section by small section, if not vine by vine. This takes a lot of work, and never gets done with absolute perfection.
Eventually, I pulled out the Cabernet Sauvignon and replanted with Aglianico, a late-ripening grape from near Naples. In theory, the later ripening variety would allow it to thrive on the hot hillside. In actuality, it never took, probably due to the difficult soil conditions, and eventually I abandoned this part of the vineyard.
So, you can see, my personal experience doesn’t make me a big fan of hillside vineyards right off the bat. But, when you think about it, hillsides have some serious deficiencies as compared with valley floors. Valley floors are consistent. Hillsides are inconsistent. If consistency is important to producing quality grapes (and it is), the valley get the nod on this count.
Some would argue that hillsides are better as they produce less vigorous vines. As a general rule, they do in fact produce less vigorous vines, but whether that’s a plus is open to debate. Certainly a valley floor vineyard can be so vigorous that it affects fruit quality. But by proper pruning, as well as correct rootstock and varietal (and clonal) selection, in most (though not all) sites, the vigor problem can be overcome. And, in the end, it is easier to deal with too much vigor than not enough, often a problem with the hillside plantings.
I think it’s worth noting that, while hillsides produce some excellent wines, they certainly have no monopoly on wine quality. In Napa, for example, the valley floor produces excellent wine grapes. While others would argue to the contrary, I think on the whole the valley produces higher quality wines than Napa hillside vineyards do. I’m not trashing the hillsides, as they also produce very fine wines. But, on the whole, the valley floor, at the least, holds its own against the hillsides.
