Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1.9
A deep coarse-textured
soil formed on granitic parent
material.
to a problem of excess vigor in vines planted on such sites, this can be con-
trolled by canopy management and the correct choice of grapevine rootstock
(see “Rootstocks,” chapter 5).
This brief overview of the effect on soil formation of parent material, inter-
acting with the other factors of climate, organisms, relief, and time, gives some
indication of the enormous variability that can be shown by soil in the landscape.
The extent of this variability and its influence on viticulture over the centuries are
discussed in the following section.
Soil Variability and the Concept of
Terroir
Some of the earliest examples of winemakers acknowledging the interaction
of soil variability with vine performance and wine character go back to the
Middle Ages (from the 8th century ad) in the Burgundy and Rheingau regions,
where monasteries possessed large tracts of land on which vines were grown and
wine made. Particularly notable were monasteries at Cluny in the Mâconnais
region, France, Clos de Vougeot at Cîteaux in the Côte d'Or, Burgundy region,
and Kloster Eberbach in the Rheingau region (Johnson and Robinson, 2013),
