The material that makes up Texas bedrock and topsoil is hugely responsible for the style, flavors, and overall complexity of the wines that are grown there, as with any region of the world. Texas has some of the most varied, as well as some of the most ancient soil in all the United States, from billions year old granite to hundreds of millions year old limestone, to ancient riverbed, alluvial soils, sandy, loam, and clay textures, and much more. Variations in soil type, bedrock, climate, and elevation give an unprecedented amount of range in the wines grown from Texas.
A Brief History of Texas Soils
In the Precambrian Era Texas was subject to magma that permeated upward through the soil and hardened into granite. This rock is now over a-billion-years old and is present close to the surface of Texas in regions such as the Llano Uplift.
Up until the last hundred million years Texas was entirely under shallow seas, causing limestone, sandstone, dolomite and other rocks formed by mineral precipitates. Varying ages of mineral-dense bedrock has formed in layers, creating major theme across the state. These porous, alkaline rocks span across Texas and make the state and its wines comparable to several highly respected wine regions of the world with carbonate soils: Burgundy, Champagne, Rhône, Tuscany, Paso Robles in California, and Mendoza in Argentina.
The movement of this base material has further divided and defined the innumerous soil patterns of Texas. Tectonic plates shifting created several plateaus, the Balcones Fault line that separates the Eastern third of Texas from hillier areas to the West and the plains that extend inland. Additionally, several ancient volcanic and magmatic eruptions have thrust Texas crust upward to elevations as high as 8,500 feet elevation and up. Many of these elevated igneous formations are present in far West Texas, formed between 30 and 35 million years ago.
Finally, the more current influence on the diversity of Texas’ top and sub-soils lies in the variety of river basins that run from the Northwest of the state and outlet in the Gulf, cutting patterns and depositing soil, minerals, and alluvial deposits as they travel Southeast across up to hundreds of miles. Each river basin draws from where it begins and defines the current composition of everything in its path.
With the varying ages of the base material of Texas, the water influence from sea and river influence, varying elevations and terrain, and the topsoils scattered and deposited throughout the state, the sheer number of growing environments in Texas cannot be quantified. Site selection is becoming a familiar term to growers and producers of wine in Texas as grape varieties suited to the various climates are paired to soil profiles that promote the variety’s health and character. It is common to find Texas wines with a single vineyard stated on the label, indicating the producer has prized the wine for an expression of a singular place and common soil type.
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