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    Sand

    The coarsest fraction of the soil: loose grains that let water straight through and keep little of it.

    Sand in the atlas

    1. Atlas regionBordeaux
    2. Atlas regionCôte-Rôtie and Hermitage
    3. Atlas regionRheingau
    4. Atlas regionWachau
    5. Atlas regionBarossa Valley

    Atlas regions where this rock appears in the text or the soil profile.

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    What it is

    Sand is the largest soil particle, 0.05 to 2 mm in diameter; silt measures 0.002 to 0.05 mm and clay less than 0.002 mm.1 Sand feels gritty to the touch and holds very little water.1 A coarse-textured soil has low water-holding capacity, high infiltration, a high potential for leaching and low nutrient retention.1

    sand
    gravel
    clay

    Schematic: how fast water drains through the rock. A qualitative comparison based on the sources on this page.

    In the vineyard

    In the Wachau wind-blown sand settled in the lee of the hills after the Ice Age.2 Downvalley the weathered primary-rock soils there give way to light, sandy soils.3 The Rheingau lies largely in the Mainz Basin, which was filled with sands, clays, marls and limestones.4

    Sand and phylloxera

    Of the few regions that grow Vitis vinifera on its own roots, some can do so because of the very high sand content of their soils.5 Studies cited by Chandel and colleagues (2022) found phylloxera very common in clay, loam and sandy-loam soils but not in sandy soils, and in South Africa it predominated in soils with less than 65% sand.5 In their own analysis of Washington State, the authors identified sand content as the most prominent factor for phylloxera development.5

    Regions

    Sources

    1. Determining Soil Texture by Feel (AGR-217; Ritchey, McGrath, Gehring). University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, 2015. level 4 · checked 2026-10-13
    2. Produktspezifikation für eine Ursprungsbezeichnung gem. VO (EU) 1308/2013 Art. 94: Wachau. Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft (Austria). level 1 · checked 2026-10-13
    3. Die Wachau. Vinea Wachau Nobilis Districtus. level 4 · checked 2026-10-13
    4. Die Böden und ihre Verbreitung in den hessischen Weinbaugebieten (K. Friedrich, K.-J. Sabel). Hessisches Landesamt für Naturschutz, Umwelt und Geologie (HLNUG). level 4 · checked 2026-10-13
    5. Soil and Climate Geographic Information System Data-Derived Risk Mapping for Grape Phylloxera in Washington State (Chandel, Moyer, Keller, Khot, Hoheisel), Front. Plant Sci. 13. Frontiers in Plant Science, 2022. level 3 · checked 2026-10-13