Our Soil Studies series aims to uncover the connection between major soil types found in viticulture, the vines that grow there, and the wines that they create. Rather than debating whether terroir exists, these stories dig into empirical and anecdotal correlations of soil type and wine style.
Serious wine drinkers may pledge allegiance to certain soil types, crediting one or another with a certain flavor or sensation they detect in their glass. Limestone soils, which underpin some of the world’s most coveted vineyards in Burgundy, Chablis, and Champagne, are often linked to a particular wine’s precision, brightness, or linearity. The word “minerality” is frequently associated with wines made from grapes grown in limestone soils.
The connection between soil and flavor is, however, muddled at best for casual consumers. And even for people who make a living growing, producing, tasting, or selling wine, trying to connect the dots between the properties of the soil and the properties of a finished wine can feel akin to cracking the Voynich code.

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What do we mean when we say limestone soils, exactly? And how do those soils affect the flavor in the glass? We reached out to scientists, terroir specialists, and producers to find out more.
What, Exactly, Is Limestone?
Limestone is a sedimentary rock containing calcite, a calcium carbonate mineral. Limestone soils are derived from parent material, either calcareous or dolomitic. (The difference is subtle: dolomite is essentially limestone, but some of the calcium content has been replaced with magnesium. Limestone is made up of calcite, or calcium carbonate. Essentially, dolomite is calcareous, but a lighter or less pure version.) They contain at least five percent and up to 50 percent calcium carbonate or calcium magnesium carbonite. These details are easy to overlook, but essential to understanding limestone’s essence and its effect, argues terroir and geology expert Brenna Quigley.
“When we talk about limestone soils, we’re talking about soils derived from limestone bedrock,” Quigley says. “The bedrock is a solid, immovable piece of the Earth’s crust. It’s an intact piece of the continent.”
The soil, on the other hand, consists of organic matter that has broken down over time, including portions of calcium carbonate in that limestone bedrock which has weathered over time as the Earth’s surface is exposed to water and air. Add water, air, and time, and you have limestone soil.
“Ultimately, when we’re talking about limestone soils, we’re talking about residual soils where mineral material is derived from the limestone bedrock,” Quigley says. “These soils are all going to be alkaline and have a basic PH of around eight. There will be active lime present, which is essentially calcium carbonate in the soil itself, which makes it available to the plant.”

Limestone soils can be found across about half of France, one-third of Italy and Spain, and parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and Caspian Sea region. But few are pure, says Alex Maltman, an emeritus professor of earth sciences at Aberystwyth University and the author of several books on vineyard geology, including the upcoming Taste the Limestone, Smell the Slate.
“Very few limestone soils are pure calcium carbonate,” Maltman says. “In Burgundy, there’s clay giving marl, and other limestone soils interact with silt or sand. All of these other elements have a critical effect on how the grapes grow and develop.”
Take Chablis. The region is characterized by two types of limestone soils. The most prevalent is the 150 million year old Kimmeridgian limestone soil, a blend of limestone, clay, and ancient marine fossils. Kimmeridgian soils define the region’s higher-quality wines. Portlandian limestone, which contains more limestone than clay and has fewer marine fossils, is considered less auspicious, and typically resides under vineyards used for Petit Chablis.
“The soils are essential to the identity of Chablis,” says Romain Chevrolat, the winemaker of Domaine Laroche. “For me, the Kimmeridgian soils in particular have a very specific but subtle effect on the Chardonnay grown here. You won’t find anything too austere, and the Kimmeridgian soils are useful for transmitting the delicate aromas and flavors.”
Limestone’s Effect on Grape Growing
Broadly speaking, soils with a significant portion of limestone offer excellent drainage and water conservation.
“The main contribution that limestone soils make to grape growing is in the way they help vines manage water,” says Maltman. “These soils absorb water like a sponge. There are also deep fissures in the bedrock, which conserves water and allows deep-rooted vines to dig in and find water there during periods of drought.”
Scott Burns, Ph.D., a professor emeritus of engineering geology at Portland State University and co-author of The Effects of Soil on the Taste of Wine adds that the limestone soils are uniformly thin and offer plants much higher levels of calcium. Dr. Burns says these conditions create the stereotypical “poor soil” environment necessary to make great wine.
“Limestone soils are thin, which stresses the grape plants,” says Burns. “Calcium is a nutrient that grapes like. So you have stressed grapes, a necessary component for making high-quality wine, and the availability of calcium and water when the vines stretch down into the bedrock.”
Limestone soils mixed with clay are particularly adept at storing water, given clay’s additional ability to absorb water.
But there are negatives, too. Limestone’s high pH can make it challenging for vines to absorb the nutrients they need, especially iron. This iron deficiency can create issues with photosynthesis, which will impede growth and open the door to disease. There are workarounds, though.
“We have found that using rootstock 41B helps the vines adapt,” Chevrolat says. “It helps ensure the vines absorb iron and all of the nutrients in the soil, and it also helps in other ways. We find budburst is later, which helps prevent frost issues, and while it tends to result in fewer grapes, the ones that do develop grow well and are more concentrated.”

The Taste and Texture of Wines Grown in Limestone
Limestone soils demonstrably change the way vines grow. But can you trace specific flavors or characteristics in the glass to limestone soils alone?
Some say no. “I don’t have opinions,” says Maltman. “I’m a scientist, so I look at evidence. There is no well-demonstrated connection between any type of soil and the flavor of the actual wine, just a lot of anecdotes.”
But others point to changes in acidity, tannin, and other structural elements—the building blocks of the way we taste and perceive wine. “I think that the acidity in wines from limestone is likely related to what we refer to as linearity,” Quigley says. “The tannin development, which seems to be related to soil type, also greatly influences the wine’s structure.”
When asked how grapes grown in exactly the same conditions, except with different soil types, would compare, Quigley says that she’d “expect the limestone wine to be higher acid, and the structure to be compact, intense, and linear”—with the caveat that many factors that are inherently changed with different parent materials.
Though Maltman does not think soil is directly connected to wine flavor, he does say that the size of the grapes grown on limestone soils may influence the impression a wine delivers. “In general, meager soils like—but not exclusively—limestone, are good for quality wine,” says Maltman. “They concentrate the compounds in grapes, which are flavor precursors.”
Chevrolat, who has worked with grapes harvested from other types of soils, including ones dominated by schist and granite, thinks that the most notable effect limestone has is in the way it helps the grape transmit its flavors, although he admits that he can’t precisely explain the mechanics of the process.
“The flavors and aromas of grapes grown on limestone are something more fine than you find in other soils,” Chevrolat says. “There is a subtlety and delicacy that you can achieve on limestone, more than on other soils.”
Dispatch
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Kathleen Willcox is a journalist who writes about food, wine, beer, and popular culture; her work has appeared in VinePair, Edible Capital District, Bust magazine, and Gastronomica, and on United Stations Radio Networks, among other venues. She recently coauthored, with Tessa Edick, “Hudson Valley Wine: A History of Taste & Terroir.” She lives in Saratoga Springs, New York.