Santa Margherita

Tell me what soil you've got and I'll tell you which vine is best suited to it. This rule has long been understood by vine-growers, as each region's local wine-producing traditions demonstrate. However, it should be said that vines are capable of adapting to all types of terrain. Here we would like to cite Mario Fregoni, Professor of Wine at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Piacenza and one of the major figures in the world of Italian wine. He summarizes  - and simplifies - the link between soil and wine thus:
•    stony, permeable soils produce fine, high-quality wines with an intense bouquet and a high degree of alcoholic strength;
•    sandy soils give wines that are elegant, delicate and perfumed, but with less structure: they should be drunk young;
•    soils that are moderately clayey yield wines that are rich in extract, rounded, with good acidity and aging potential;
•    heavy, very clayey soils give wines that are indeed rich in extract, aromatic and intensely colored, but they are often coarse and unbalanced;
•    damp soils produce very acid wines that are low in alcohol and rich in proteins;
•    calcareous (lime-rich) soils - and this group also includes marly areas (which are rich in mineral salts) and red soils - give wines of excellent quality, with high alcohol, good structure, low acidity and a good bouquet (and, if they come from marly terrain, a particularly tangy flavor);
•     humus-rich soils have no great worth: they give wines that are coarse, unstable and low in extract;
•    acid soils produce fine, delicate, tangy wines, even if they are especially rich in body or color.