Does anyone know what vineyards are mostly sand, or mostly limestone? (I’m interested in these specific soil types for Grenache and Chardonnay.)
Sceales, Black Oak and Larner are mostly sand.
I understand Brosseau vineyard is mostly limestone.
I am interested in learning about others. Thanks for any input!
In American Canyon, the vineyard that sources Bedrock, Albarino (Aberente ?) is limestone.
Best, Jim
Lots of limestone down in the Central Coast. Much of WestSide Paso…TablasCreek, in particular.
SantaCruzMrns…Ridge MonteBello, in particular.
The most well-known sandy soils would be in ContraCosta around Antioch. Those soils are very sandy and
phylloxera could not survive…many are still on their own-rooted vines.
Tom
Manfred’s the third twin is not online yet but its mostly if not all sand. Pretty sure theres grenache in there.
I believe White Hawk is almost totally sand.
Thank you very much, I did not know many of these. I appreciate it!
I think California’s best example of a limestone soil is found west of Paso Robles (Saxum, Epoch, Tablas Creek etc). Here the limestone (technically Calcareous mudstone) has weathered to create a clay topsoil that looks a lot like Burgundy.
Some other parts of California have limestone but it’s often mixed with sand and granite and lacks the weathered limestone based clay that is possibly the most relevant feature of that soil type.
Calera, on Mt. Harlan is mostly limestone.
Isn’t Brosseau in Chalone all limestone?
Isn’t Verna’s in Los Alamos all sand?
Thank you for the input, this is all very interesting. (It makes me want o drink some wine!)
I understand that Lodi’s historic Kirschenmann Vineyard is planted on sand.
I’d just add that Calera was searching for limestone before they landed.
If you take the 46W from Paso Robles to the Coast, around Vineyard Road you start to hit limestone soils. Lots of the above mentioned vineyards reside there.
I make a Grenache from a block that is white clay over limestone for my La Marea label. It’s way off in the Gabilans.
Rancho Ontiveros in Santa Maria Valley is mostly on sandy soil.