List of vineyard soil types facts for kids

The soil composition of vineyards is super important when farmers plant grapevines. The soil is like the home for the vine's roots. It helps control how much water the vine gets and how many important minerals and nutrients it can find.

The best soil for a grapevine has a thin layer of topsoil and subsoil. This soil should hold enough water for the vine but also let extra water drain away. This stops the roots from getting too wet. How well the soil holds or reflects heat back to the vine is also key. This affects how well the grapes ripen.

Good vineyard soils have several minerals that are vital for healthy vines. These include calcium, which helps balance the soil's acidity. Iron is needed for photosynthesis, which is how plants make their food. Magnesium is a big part of chlorophyll, which makes plants green. Nitrogen helps the vine grow strong. Phosphates encourage roots to grow well. And potassium helps the vine's systems work better, making it healthier for the next year's grape crop.

Types of Vineyard Soils

Soils Starting with A to C

• Albariza – This soil is made from deposits of ancient tiny sea creatures. You can find it in southern Spain.
• Alluvium – This is very rich soil that has been carried and dropped by a river. It often contains gravel, sand, and silt.
• Basalt – A type of volcanic rock. It has lots of calcium, iron, and magnesium.
• Boulbènes – A fine, sandy soil that is easily squished. It's common in the Entre-Deux-Mers area of Bordeaux, France.
• Brickearth – This is another name for Loess soil.
• Calcareous soil – This soil is alkaline, meaning it's the opposite of acidic. It has high levels of calcium and magnesium. This soil usually stays cool but holds water well and drains nicely.
  • Calcareous clay soils have lots of limestone. This helps balance the soil's natural acidity. However, because this soil stays cool, it can make grapes ripen slower. This often leads to more acidic wines.
• Carbonaceous soil – This soil forms from rotting plants that break down without much air. Examples include coal and peat.
• Chalk – A very soft limestone soil that is full of tiny holes. Grapevine roots can easily grow through it. It drains water very well and is great for grapes that naturally have high acidity.
• Clay – This soil is made from sedimentary rock. It holds water very well but doesn't drain quickly. Clay soil is often cool and can be quite acidic. Many vineyards in the Right Bank of Bordeaux have clay-based soils.

Soils Starting with D to H

• Dolomite – A soil type made of calcium-magnesium carbonate.
• Flint – A hard, glassy stone that is great at reflecting and holding heat. Wines from Pouilly-Fumé in the Loire Valley are often grown in flinty soil. People say these wines can smell like "gun-flint."
• Galestro – A type of schist (a layered rock) soil found in the Tuscany region of Italy.
• Granite – This soil is made up of mostly quartz and other minerals. It warms up quickly and holds heat well. Granite soil is quite acidic, which helps reduce the acid levels in grapes like Gamay. It's the main soil type in the Brand region of Alsace, France.
• Gravel – Loose, stony soil that drains water very well but isn't very fertile. Vines growing here have to send their roots deep to find food. Wines from vines on clay-gravel beds are less acidic than those on limestone-gravel beds. The Graves and Sauternes regions of Bordeaux are mostly gravelly.
• Greywacke – This is a sedimentary soil formed by rivers depositing quartz, mudstone, and feldspar. You can find it in vineyards in Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa.
• Gypsum – A soil made of calcium sulfate. It forms when seawater evaporates. It absorbs a lot of water but has average drainage.
• Hardpan – A very dense layer of clay or other material that water cannot pass through. In some parts of Bordeaux, a sandy, iron-rich hardpan deep underground acts like a natural water source for vines.

Soils Starting with I to Q

• Keuper – A soil type common in Alsace, France, made of marl and limestone. It dates back to the Upper Triassic period.
• Kimmeridgian soil – A gray limestone soil first found in Kimmeridge, England. Kimmeridgian clay is a type of calcareous clay with Kimmeridgian limestone. This is the main soil type in the Loire Valley, Champagne, and Burgundy regions of France.
• Lignite – A brown, carbon-rich soil that is between peat and coal. It's used as a fertilizer in parts of Germany and Champagne.
• Limestone – A soil made from carbonates. The most common color in wine areas is buff-gray. Limestone soils are always alkaline. They are generally good for grapes that have high acidity. This is the main soil type in the Zinnkoepflé region of Alsace.
• Llicorella – A soil type found in the Priorat region of Spain. It's a mix of slate and quartz from the Paleozoic era. This soil is very porous and drains well. Grapes like Syrah, Grenache, and Carignan grow well here.
• Loam – A warm, soft, and fertile soil made of roughly equal amounts of silt, sand, and clay. It's often too fertile for high-quality wines, which need vines to produce fewer grapes to get more concentrated flavors.
• Loess – A very fine, silty soil made of wind-blown sand. It's also known as brickearth in the UK. This soil is very fertile and holds water well, but it doesn't drain quickly.
• Marl – A soil made of calcareous clay that adds acidity to the wine. Vines planted in marl usually ripen later than in other soils. Marl soil is typically deep and doesn't have many stones. It's the main soil type in the Piedmont wine region of Italy. Marlstone is a harder, more cemented form of Marl.
• Mica – A soil made of fine, broken-down rock formations, based on silicates.
• Muschelkalk – A soil type common in Alsace, France, made of different amounts of sandstone, marl, dolomite, and shingle. It dates back to the Middle Triassic period.
• Perlite – A light, powdery, and shiny volcanic soil.
• Quartz – A common material found in most vineyard soils, especially sandy and silty ones. Quartz can reduce the acidity of wines. However, it holds and reflects heat, which can help grapes ripen more, leading to wines with higher alcohol content.

Soils Starting with S to Z

• Sand – A warm, airy soil made of tiny pieces of weathered rocks. It's one of the few soils where the phylloxera louse (a pest that attacks grapevines) doesn't do well. Sand drains well but doesn't hold water for long. Sandstone is a sedimentary soil made of sand particles pressed together by iron-based minerals. This is the main soil type of Kitterlé in Alsace.
• Schist – A layered, crystalline rock-based soil that holds heat well. It's rich in magnesium and potassium but doesn't have many organic nutrients or nitrogen.
• Shale – A fine-grained sedimentary soil that can turn into slate under pressure. It's moderately fertile and holds heat well.
• Siliceous soil – Soil made of acidic, crystalline rock. It holds heat well but needs other soils like silt and clay to hold water. This soil type covers half of the Bordeaux wine regions.
• Silt – A soil type with fine grain deposits. It holds water well but drains poorly. It's more fertile than sand.
• Silex – A flint- and sand-based soil type found mainly in the Loire Valley. It's formed from a mix of clay, limestone, and silica.
• Slate – A common soil type in the Mosel region of Germany. Slate is a metamorphic, plate-like rock formed when shale, clay, or siltstone are put under great pressure deep inside the Earth. This soil holds heat well and warms up quickly.
• Steige – A schist-based soil found in the Andlau region of Alsace. In the Kastelberg area, this soil has changed with granite sand to form a hard, dark, slate-like stone.
• Terra Rossa – A sedimentary soil known as "Red Earth." It forms after carbonates have been washed out of limestone. This leaves behind iron deposits, which turn the soil a rusty red color when they oxidize. This soil type is found in some areas along the Mediterranean and in Coonawarra, Australia. It drains well and has good nutrients. Australian winemakers have had success planting Cabernet Sauvignon grapes here.
• Tufa – A very crumbly, soft limestone bedrock that breaks down into a fine, crumbly structure.
• Ultisol – A very old, mostly infertile, clay-based soil. It's usually a bright red color and found in the American South.
• Volcanic soil – Soil that comes from volcanic activity.
  • Vent-based soil forms from rock material like pumice that has been shot into the air, cooled, and then settled.
  • Lava-based soil is the product of lava flows from a volcano. Most lava-based soil is basalt.