Proceedings of Terroir 2016

The conventional wisdom of vintners is that alkalinity, and thus less sour and more rounded taste, are enhanced in wine and grapes challenged by low-nutrient soils.

Wine-grapes in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, are grown on three major soil parent materials: volcanic, marine sediments, and loess/volcanic.

Wines differ from each other based on seven different factors: the type of grape; the bedrock geology and resulting soils; the climate; the soil hydrology; physiography of the site; the winemaker and the vineyard management techniques. The first five of these factors make up what the French call terroir, “the taste of the place”.

Geological influences on terroir development