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Soils
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Nine soil types, from limestone to river-laid alluvium, with seven benchmark regions built on them.
All levels 124 min 16 steps About Soil Types in Wine: A Visual Guide
Part of Terroir
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Start with limestone: calcium carbonate soils, from Champagne's chalk to the Kimmeridgian limestones of Chablis, that shape how vines find water and iron.
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Its benchmark, Chablis, sits on the marls and Kimmeridgian limestones of a single Grand Cru hillside.
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Volcanic Soils in Wine: Santorini, Etna, and the Canary Islands
Next, volcanic soils: pumice, ash, lava and lapilli shaping three island terroirs, Santorini, Etna and Lanzarote.
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On Etna, soils formed from ash, sand, lapilli and pumice, and the old, higher-elevation vineyards are largely bush-trained, some ungrafted and pre-phylloxera to this day.
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Schist Soils (Douro, Priorat, Swartland, Mosel)
Schist and slate: layered rock whose fissures let vine roots push deep for water in the Douro, and part of the same family in Priorat, Swartland and the Mosel.
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Priorat's llicorella slate, shallow with bedrock at 10 to 15 centimetres, forces roots deep and keeps yields around one kilogram of grapes per vine.
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Clay Soils: Water Retention and Body in Wine
Then clay: its fine particles hold more water than sand, and clay-rich soils are usually cooler, which can be useful in drier climates.
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Pomerol grows Merlot on clay-gravel over an iron-rich subsoil called crasse de fer, with a blue clay boutonnière at Pétrus.
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Gravel Soils: Drainage, Heat Retention and Cabernet Sauvignon in the Médoc
Cross to the Left Bank for gravel: Bordeaux.com says Cabernet Sauvignon, a late-ripening variety, thrives on its warm, gravelly soils, and its Graves page says these soils store heat from the sun's rays by day, release it at night, and are well drained.
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The Médoc's gravel rises formed from glacial-period river deposits, and the Haut-Médoc's communal appellations include Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Margaux and Saint-Estèphe.
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Sandy Soils: Sand, Phylloxera, and Ungrafted Vines (Colares & Sable de Camargue)
Sand and phylloxera: Wines of Portugal notes that phylloxera cannot survive in sand, which is why Colares vines are still planted ungrafted on their own roots.
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Granite Soils (Beaujolais Crus, Alsace Grand Crus, Cape Winelands, Northern Rhône)
On the Vosges slopes granite weathers into coarse, acidic sand, and granite soils also run through the Beaujolais crus, several Alsace Grand Crus, the Cape's granite hills and the northern Rhône.
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Moulin-à-Vent (King of Beaujolais)
In Moulin-à-Vent, soils of weathered granite are impregnated with iron and manganese oxides from mineral veins crossing the rock.
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Marl (Clay + Limestone: Champagne, Burgundy, Alsace)
Marl blends clay and limestone, and sources in Champagne, Burgundy and Alsace tie it to moisture retention, weight and long acidity.
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Barolo turns on marl: JancisRobinson.com says its range of wine characters comes from the turn of a hillside, a seam of sandstone or marl.
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Alluvial Soils: Sand and Stone from Andean Rivers (Argentina and Chile)
Finish with alluvial soils: in Mendoza the river dragged sand and stones down from the Andes, and in Chile Decanter maps alluvial soils across Medio and Bajo Maipo.
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