Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Putting It All Together
Is There an Ideal Soil for Growing Wine Grapes?
In reality, there can be no generic definition of an “ideal soil” because a soil's per-
formance is influenced by the local climate, landscape characteristics, grape vari-
ety, and cultural practices and is judged in the context of a winegrower's objectives
for style of wine to be made, market potential, and profitability of the enterprise.
This realization essentially acknowledges the long-established French concept of
terroir
: that the distinctiveness or typicity of wines produced in individual loca-
tions depends on a complex interaction of biophysical and human cultural fac-
tors, interpreted by many as meaning a wine's sense of place. As discussed in “Soil
Variability and the Concept of
Terroir
” in chapter 1, because of this interaction
of factors that determine a particular
terroir
, it is not surprising that no specific
relationships between one or more soil properties and wine typicity have been
unequivocally demonstrated. While acknowledging this conclusion, it is still
worthwhile to examine how variations in several single or combined soil proper-
ties can influence vine performance and fruit character. These properties are:
• Soildepth
• Soilstructureandwatersupply
• Soilstrength
• Soilchemistryandnutrientsupply
• Soilorganisms
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