BriCember Day 1: What Makes a Wine “Good”? Understanding the Four Pillars of Place
BriCember Day 1: What Makes a Wine “Good”? Understanding the Four Pillars of Place
By Brionna Jimerson – December 4, 2025
Welcome to BriCember — my favorite annual challenge where I record, produce, and publish a podcast episode every day in December. This week is Wine Week, and today we’re diving into a question I get asked constantly:
“What makes a wine good?”
After spending years tasting, traveling, gardening, and studying wine as an agricultural product (because that’s truly what it is), I’ve found that good wine always comes back to one thing: place.
To make this simple and practical, I created a framework I use every time I taste or shop for wine. Understanding these four elements will help you decode any wine, even if you don’t know the grape or region.
🌍 The Four Pillars of Place
1. Soil Type: The Starter Palette
Soil is the original ingredient list.
Different soils = different flavor and texture signatures.
Limestone: lean, mineral, salty, precise
Clay: round, plush, smooth
Volcanic ash: smoky tension, minerality, energy
Gravel/alluvial: concentrated fruit, warmth, structure
Soil tells you how the wine will feel just as much as how it will taste. If you love mineral whites? Look for limestone. If you love smoky reds? Volcanic soil is your best friend.
2. Climate: The Fruit and Freshness Factor
Climate shapes fruit character, acidity, and aroma.
Cool climate wines (Chablis, Mosel, alpine regions) = high acid, delicate aromatics, lower alcohol.
Warm climate wines (Mediterranean regions, parts of California) = ripe fruit, fuller body, higher alcohol.
Climate helps explain why one Sauvignon Blanc tastes grassy and sharp, while another tastes ripe and tropical.
3. Elevation & Aspect: The Temperature Dance
Elevation creates diurnal shifts — swings between warm days and cool nights.
Warm days = riper fruit
Cool nights = preserved acidity
This balance is the reason mountain-grown wines often taste so alive and energetic.
Sun exposure, rainfall, and altitude all shape the wine’s complexity.
This is where you truly “travel through a bottle.”
4. Farming & Vine Health: The Human Hand
Wine is farming.Healthy vines create clean, expressive wines. Farming choices matter, including:
organic or biodynamic practices
canopy management
yields per vine
natural or low-intervention winemaking
As a gardener, this aspect of winemaking feels especially meaningful and almost spiritual. There is something deeply human in tasting the decisions, effort, and traditions of the people who nurture the vines.
So… What Makes Wine Good?
Good wine is:
✔ technically clean
✔ balanced
✔ expressive of the place it grew
✔ reflective of human skill and care
✔ and most importantly: delicious to you
The Four Pillars help you identify, understand, and articulate the wines you love and why you love them.
What’s Coming Up Next in Wine Week
Tomorrow’s episode is a hands-on tasting exercise that will help you practice the Four Pillars at home.
After that, we’re exploring:
-Austrian wine
-Orange wines
- Swiss wine
-Wines of Burgenland
-How to shop smarter at any wine store
And yes — we’ll end with tasting notes, shopping tips, and a BriCember wine cheat sheet. If you listened to the episode, let me know your biggest takeaway. If you try the Four Pillars during your next wine night, tag me at @brionnajay and @bribookspod.
Happy BriCember.
See you tomorrow!
