🪨 Alluvium

Alluvium is soil deposited by a river. When water floods or changes course, it leaves layers of sand, silt and pebbles. Over thousands of years this builds fertile plains along rivers.

For grapes, alluvium is often good because it drains well. Roots go deep, the vine does not suffer from excess moisture, and pebbles store heat by day and release it at night. Berries on such land can ripen with good concentration.

Alluvial soils are often mixed with gravel: also a river legacy, coarser than sand but finer than rock. Such sites occur in many wine regions of Europe and the world, near large rivers and their tributaries.

The make-up of alluvium differs from place to place. In some it is mostly sand, in others clay. So one cannot say what wine alluvium gives in general: much depends on the grape and the climate.