THIS IS A VERY THIN SOIL. Much of the soil material has been removed by erosion. Above lightly weathered granodiorite blocks follows a layer of stones covered with weathered granodiorite. This is followed by a sandy loess horizon. Sand, stones and little space for roots – a combination that means water stress in summer, because this friable substrate cannot store adequate amounts of water. The thermal properties of this soil are very good. The soil warms rapidly in spring, boosting the development of the vine. The soil nutrient reservoir is relatively small. Low humus and clay contents mean that the soil cannot store and supply the plants with adequate amounts of nutrients. On the other hand, large amounts of potassium, magnesium, sodium and iron are bound in the rock forming minerals. Thus weathering ensures a slow but continuous supply of mineral nutrients.

THE ROCK
The fiery geology of the Hessische Bergstrasse begins with the collision of two large continents during the carboniferous (300 to 360 million years ago) period and the ensuing rise of magma from deep within the earth. However this magma never reached the earth surface but cooled within the earth’s crust. These crystalline rocks are called plutonic rocks and were lifted thousands of meters to the earth’s surface when the Upper Rhine Rift Valley developed during the Tertiary (2.6 to 65 million years ago). The overlying rocks were eroded.
      Many plutonic rocks of the Hessische Bergstrasse have high quartz but low alkali feldspar contents. Granodiorite is a whitish-grey to grey, coarse textured, quartz-rich magmatic rock. This rock has a high alkali mineral content such as potassium and sodium but also magnesium and iron. The rock contains alkali feldspars, potassium feldspar and dark minerals such as biotite or hornblende. A hornblende-granodiorite is found in Bensheim (Paulus) and Heppenheim (Stemmler). The granodiorite is usually deeply weathered to