The Ideal Vineyard

Perhaps not the best place to plant vines

The ideal vineyard ? Not easy to answer. It would depend on whether an existing vineyard is available or whether the vineyard could be planted from scratch. Some might be tempted to go for a first growth domain in Bordeaux or a mythical Burgundian, Italian, German etc property, and they would not be wrong. These places are the great vineyards of the world and have been recognised as such for centuries at least. So depending on whether you are a Burgundy or a Bordeaux fan the difficulty resides in choosing the best or favourite property. As wine is intensely personal and a matter of taste there would be many ideal vineyards, unless you could ask every wine lover in the word to vote on their ideal. It might be more interesting to look at how one could create an ideal vineyard from nothing and what could be done to achieve the very best results.

What might be needed ? Mountains, hills and slopes. They are picturesque and help drain the vines (they don't like getting their feet wet) and ripen them, as well as protecting them from frost (the cold air rolls down the hill). Soil of course, but this might be any type as long it has plenty of organic matter diverse vegetation and many little creepy crawlies in it. I have a fondness for granite, schist, basalt but any geology as long as it is complex would be ideal. Large pudding stones are tempting, but if you're looking to have a nice slope you will be disappointed as these are alluvial features only found where rivers once ran. Only lime or clay might not produce the complex results I would like. In any case the wine jury is out on whether the soil alone has much influence on the final product. The results are based on the combination of all the factors involved. I would probably steer clear of excessive lime as this has drawbacks in relation to rootstock selection (not sure if I would have grafted vines at all) and vine nutrition.

As to the latitude and the varieties I would choose a cooler (or higher in altitude) rather than a warmer area and choose varieties just able to ripen there.

There is an spot I know just beneath a towering cliff where I would fancy planting syrah and viognier individually staked and creating my own Hermitage or Château Grillet, or perhaps grenache as bush vines. Who knows how good or bad the wines might be. Fantasy vineyard.