Discover our terroir
A mosaic geology
The Alsace vineyard is based on a wonderfully varied and complex geology. The Soultz vineyard does not derogate from this rule. This very great diversity of soils and rocks is due to a major and remarkable geological phenomenon that occurred between 45 and 35 million years ago during the eras of the Eocene and the Oligocene: the collapse of the Rhine ditch. At the origin of the reliefs of the Vosges, the Black Forest and the plain of Alsace that we know today, this phenomenon also allowed to discover and juxtapose geological layers of very different nature and age, ranging from granite to limestone, through sandstone, volcanic or shale rocks.
The Sandstone in Conductive Wire
The vineyard of Soultz and surrounding root on the sub-vosgesian hills of the Rimbach valley. These hills consist of pink sandstone rocks formed during the Trias era (-250 million years) or limestone from the Jurassic era (-150 million years) and Oligocene (-35 million years). Shaped and altered for thousands of years by geological movements, erosion, formation and melting of glaciers, as well as by the activity of flora and fauna, these rocks gave rise to a wide variety of soils (grey, calcaro-grey, marno-calcium...). All with a true identity, these soils form the foundation and fundamental component of a winery.
Les Lieux-Dit : a Living Heritage
Some places are distinguished by their soul which can reside in the nature of their soil, the beauty of their landscape, their exposure or the peculiarities of their climate. When they are shaped and maintained by successive generations of men and women, in the form of a vineyard, for example, they are called Terroirs.
In Soultz, these terroirs were delimited long ago in several places-Dit, or remarkable Crus. A document dated 1575 and from the records of the Priory of Thierenbach already shows four places which are particularly interesting for the cultivation of the vine: « im Hornstein, am Mittelberg, am Orschwillerberg, am Bintzweg » (source: BARTH Médar, Der Rebbau des Elsass, 1958). The document also recalls that the names of the so-called places on the Alsatian cadastres are inherited from the Germanic period of the region.
Today, the Domaine Robert Roth is the guarantor of this living heritage. Clearly identified, three of these ancestral terroirs cultivated in the Domaine have been the subject of partial vinifications for some 30 years in order to respect the identity and character of each of these remarkable terroirs, namely Mittelbourg, Hornstein and Orschwillerbourg de Soultz.
