From Bedrock to Bottle: How Drainage Matters

A Closer Look At How Soil Drainage Influences Wine Quality

Wine is often regarded as an art form, with both the vigneron and winemaker contributing their skills, experience, and intuition to create what they hope will be a high-quality beverage. The concept of terroir, often used as a catch-all term for the environmental factors that influence grape development, is frequently seen as the defining attribute of a vineyard’s potential to produce quality wine. This term encompasses various elements, such as the vineyard’s exposure to sunlight, altitude, soil composition, and slope. Some purists argue that soil is the only factor that matters, while others—rightly, in my opinion—include aspects like proximity to moderating bodies of water and the broader landscape surrounding the vineyard.

However, soil is indeed critical, not so much for its specific geological composition, but rather for its drainage and water-holding capacity. As I’ve mentioned i…