Old vines, old rooms: what Burgundy wine has in common with the Assembly Rooms

Picture this: an elegant aroma of red and citrus fruits; the crisp pop of freshly opened bottles; a giddy hum of chatter as sommeliers eagerly fill up glasses. This was the atmosphere in the Assembly Rooms last month, where we welcomed The Wine Society 1874 for their Burgundy Tasters evening.

There we were introduced to the French term ‘terroir’. This idea says that wine’s unique personality comes directly from the soil where its grapes grew. Chablis wines get their bone-dry, acidic flavour from the limestone earth of Northern Burgundy, while Mâconnais wines have a richness thanks to the sun-exposed hills in the south.

In other words, place is inseparable from what it produces, and just as wine needs the right soil, an event needs the right space.

The Assembly Rooms has its own version of terroir. From the way the light hits the crystal chandeliers in the evening; the Doric portico around the entrance; the Ballroom where Walter Scott stood and revealed himself to be the ‘Great Unknown’ author of the Waverley Novels. The venue is inextricably tied to its history, like Burgundy wines are shaped by theirs.

A wine grower whose family has worked the same fields, harvesting the same grapes over centuries, knows that the past is present in every bottle. Wander around the Assembly Rooms on an evening like this one and you understand exactly what that means.