I've been there, and yes to my untrained eye the soil in the Nacional vineyard looks somewhat sandy. But I'm comparing it to the clay I grew up with in Nebraska and the glacier-plowed loam+rocks that we have here in Washington. It isn't sand, but to me it does look like sandy soil.Andy Velebil wrote:Here's a pic of the Nacional soil. Does it look sandy? Interesting in that this tiny plot of land supposedly just happens to be THAT different from the rest of the Quinta. Again, makes one thinkGlenn E. wrote:From what I've heard, phyloxera doesn't especially like sandy soil, and the soil in the Nacional vineyard is both schist and sand. So while there's phyloxera in there, it's not as bad as it is in "normal" vineyards so that's why the vines can live as long as they do.g-man wrote:My understanding is that there is no current "cure" / control for phyloxera, you get it, it stays. You can rip out the vines but certainly eggs would still remain and it'll just infect the new plants.
I'd be curious if phyloxera is still in the soils of the nacional plot or if it was indeed miraculously spared.
I've never done any research to try to confirm or deny that, though.
Your point is a good one, though. Why or how is the soil in the Nacional sub-plot different than what's right next to it? Was there construction that brought in sand for some purpose that was somehow mixed into the soil near the buildings? Has it always been different, or is it a side effect of something that happened in the 1920s when the vineyard was replanted?
It may be simply the extra care that goes into the Nacional vineyard, but I think we have to accept what our tastebuds tell us. There is something different about Nacional. Maybe it's the care, maybe it's the specific field blend, maybe it's the soil, or maybe it's the varying ages of the vines as they're continually replaced. But something makes that vineyard perform differently than the rest of Noval.