Soil family
Loess
Fine wind-blown silt laid down after the ice ages, the warm ochre ground of the Vistula slopes.
Soil profile
- Topsoil · brown earth, vineyard rows
- Loess · wind-blown glacial silt, 10–30 m deep
- Limestone · older bedrock beneath, where it shows
- Formation
- Wind-blown glacial silt, 10–30 m deep
Grapes that like it
Loess · where it dominates
Regions on the road
Elsewhere along the road
Małopolska, Lubelskie, Znojmo, Wachau, Kamptal, Slavonia
What loess gives the wine
Loess is the dust of the ice age: silt blown off retreating glaciers and settled in deep, soft beds along the great rivers. It warms early, drains quickly, and holds just enough water to carry a vine through a dry August. Wines from loess tend to be round and fruit-forward, with aromatics that open fast and acidity that stays polite.
In Poland it underlies Sandomierz, the Vistula Gorge and much of Małopolska; in Austria it is the ground of the Wachau terraces and the Kamptal; in Moravia it blankets the granite at Znojmo.