Charlie Geoghegan - All Comments

RE: An Interview with the Geologist Alex Maltman

Kent Benson — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 23:08:53 GMT

Thank you, Charlie! Keep up the good work, Alex! You are changing things for the better. There was a time when I thought it was too late to stop the ubiquitous misuse of the term varietal, but after 20 years of Jancis Robinson and others speaking out against it, most serious wine writers have stopped using the term. Your work is far more important and impactful than the misuse of one term, but I mention it as a lesson in the power of persistence in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. It pays to keep beating the drum.

RE: An Interview with the Geologist Alex Maltman

Jon-Marc Yaden — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 04:27:52 GMT

Thank you so much for publishing this interview. Professor Maltman's voice is very important in this conversation about how soils actually affect the finished wine style and have been vital in my own research. He alludes to the one of the most important features of geology in the interview, namely, mineral abundance in soil: potassium scarcity will result in decreased neutralization of tartaric acid in the must, resulting in higher acidity in the finished wine. If the winemaker practices minimal intervention, this higher acidity will translate directly into the finished wine style. No, as Maltman argues, we are not tasting limestone, but geology does affect a host of factors related to vine nutrition, including one of the most important of all to wine professionals: acidity. Great article, brief and informative!

RE: An Interview with the Geologist Alex Maltman

Anthony J Grourke — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 14:16:20 GMT

No one in their right mind would argue that minerals from rock get into the finished wine and are detectable by the human palate. You literally can't taste clay or limestone or basalt in a wine. The fact remains that the finished "character" of wines do differ and this is irrefutable. Terroir imbues a wine as it imbues any countless other agricultural products. How exactly it all plays out from a science perspective will never be fully known and that's completely fine.

RE: An Interview with the Geologist Alex Maltman

Peter Van de Reep — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 21:43:57 GMT

Terrific interview with a fascinating scientist. My academic background is geology and was sceptical (as scientists are) about Dr. Maltman's assertions when his writing began to be circulated, but then I read his first book and found myself very much in agreement with his position on the geological influence on finalized wines. When wine educators and fellow sommeliers throw around soil and rock terms, they rarely know the meaning of what they are using to justify a wine's character. The same with translations of soil or rock names from other languages or conflation of formation names or local names with the geological definition of soil (eg. Tuff, tufa, tufo, tuffeau - volcanic sedimentary rock, cold water crystallized limestone/carbonate rock, Italian name for the volcanic tuff but confusingly used for either sometimes, a French limestone with high mica and glauconite content centred around Touraine and Anjou respectively) - funnily enough, The World of Fine Wine has an article published written by Dr. Maltman about this very topic here. The wine world can learn a lot from him.