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Episode details

World Service,28 Sep 2022,26 mins

Series The Understory: Life in the Soil

Life in soil: Tasting the earth in France

The Compass

Available for over a year

Writer and environmentalist Isabelle Legeron is in France to see how cultivating a healthy soil, teeming with fungi and microbes, can enhance the flavour profile of food and drink - from cheese to coffee to wine. She explores the fundamental role soil plays in the notion of “terroir’ - the conviction that the natural environment in which plants are grown, can be experienced in the taste and texture of the food and drink made from them. Isabelle speaks to a cast of soil microbiologists, land managers and taste experts - Lydia and Claude Bourguignon (France), Anne Biklé (USA), the Le Puy vineyard in Bordeaux, Barry Smith (UK), Darek Trowbridge (USA) and Hans-Peter Schmidt (Switzerland). Presenter: Isabelle Legeron Producer: Sasha Edye-Lindner A Cast Iron Production for BBC World Service (Photo: A vineyard)

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