Another explanation of terroir - bugs this time

Decanter had just published an article on another attempt to solve the mystery of terroir. Whilst traditional wisdom explains it in terms of the soil, the amount of sun, rain and other weather variables, this article quotes a study which looks at the different Merlot vines in New York and in Bordeaux and California, which gives very similar results. This opens up an area of research into how the pattern of different bacteria, which is found in similar patterns in the soil in which these vines are grown, can influence the plants and ultimately the wines made from it by altering the chemical composition of the fruit. Talking about chemical composition, I recall that micro-analysis of trace elements from the finished product (ie the wine) can determine the location where the fruit was grown, and had some use in identifying fake wines. But that is another story altogether.