Winemaker’s blog: soil - swoope

Our Swoope Vineyard sits on the slopes of Little North Mountain, the western barrier of the Shenandoah Valley, separating from the Appalachian plateaus further to the west. This ancient range with a dynamic history gives us a soil that is the culmination of countless years of change. It is almost impossible to imagine, but once this region was an ocean floor where sediment from decaying sea life and other minerals gathered. As the Iapetus Ocean disappeared a flat tidal plain was left, where these sediment deposits began to harden forming horizontal layers of Limestone, Sandstone and Shale. More time that is impossible for us to comprehend and pressure on the tectonic plates pushed this ancient tidal plane, folding upwards, turning what was once sediment from the oceans floor into the mountains we see today.

Just as fashion, taste and history are cyclical, so too are mountains it would seem. Where our vineyard sits today is a slope formed from the erosion of this mountain range, leaving us with a gorgeous southeastern exposure and a top soil that represents all of this endless change. It does not take a geologist to observe where our dirt came from, standing in the vineyard and looking at the mountain ridges running to the Northeast and southwest, you can see how time and water have worn away at the peaks and deposited that eroded stone right under your feet. When you are performing the slow, silent work of pruning, training and maintaining the vines your mind wanders into contemplating these things.

The soil profile of the vineyard changes following the terrain. The topography of the 50-acre vineyard is a long ridge running east to west with the largest slope side of the vineyard block getting full southeastern sun exposure. A small portion of the vineyard is on a slope facing north west. The vast majority of the soil in the vineyard is a silt loam derived from the eroded limestone rock from the mountains mentioned before. In the lower portions of the south eastern facing slopes we find layers of shale as shallow as a foot and half or so below the loam topsoil. In the crest of the ridge there is a vein of clay that runs along, narrow and a hundred or so feet long. These 3 distinct features give us more complexity within the fruit than if the entire site were just loam topsoil. The vines grow through each soil type differently due to soil texture and drainage ability and how the soil effects the vines ability to take up nutrients.

All of this distinction leads to distinction in the wines themselves. Where some components of the soil bring fullness and weight to the wine, others bring a sharpness and fresh footing to the mix giving levity to the final assembled wine in your glass. The goal for us is to bring you the most complex and satisfying wine possible and our soil is one of the cornerstones to accomplishing that goal.