Healthy soil is alive, loose and fertile. Billions of microorganisms, fungi and earthworms work in it, making nutrients available, building humus and ensuring that rain seeps in and is stored. For viticulture this is crucial: the soil determines how deep the vines root and how they are supplied with water – and so it shapes the character of the wine. Limestone, quartz, gneiss and schist are the foundation of our wines. That is why we treat our soils in a way that keeps them healthy.
What is healthy soil?
Soil is more than earth in which something grows. It is a habitat, a water reservoir, a filter and a nutrient store all at once. Soil is healthy when all of this works: when it has enough pores for air and water, when it is not contaminated with pollutants and when diverse soil life constantly reshapes it.
This cannot be taken for granted. According to the European Commission, 60 to 70 percent! of soils in the EU are not in good condition: they are losing humus, biodiversity and fertility. Since the end of 2025, there has therefore been an EU directive dedicated specifically to soils for the first time: it obliges all member states to monitor the condition of their soils.
And soil hardly grows back. Depending on the location, it often takes centuries for a single centimeter to form anew. What is lost through erosion does not come back within human timescales. And when soil is deeply compacted by heavy machinery, the damage often lasts for decades.
Who lives in the soil?
A handful of healthy soil contains more living organisms than there are people on Earth. According to current estimates, probably more than half of all species on our planet make their home in the soil. Beneath a single square meter, millions of nematodes and trillions of bacteria are at work, interwoven with kilometers of fungal threads, along with woodlice, springtails, mites and earthworms.
Earthworms are the builders. They pull plant residues down into the depths, dig tunnels through which water and roots find their way down, and leave behind nutrient-rich crumbs. Soil with many worms can absorb water many times faster than soil without them.
Our vines depend on this life, too. Mycorrhizal fungi live on their roots and reach with the finest threads into soil pores that are too small for the root itself. They supply the vine with water and nutrients and in return receive sugars and fats from photosynthesis. Trials show that vines with well-developed mycorrhiza cope better with drought stress. At Lake Neusiedl, that is no minor matter.
Why is humus so important?
Humus forms when soil organisms transform plant residues, roots and their own dead bodies. It gives the soil its dark color and its crumbly structure. These crumbs hold the pores through which air and water flow and in which roots grow.
Humus stores nutrients and releases them slowly. It protects the soil from silting up or being washed away during heavy rain. And it holds water, although less than is often claimed. Far more important is that a humus-rich, well-structured soil is able to absorb rain in the first place instead of letting it run off the surface.
But humus only stays as long as the soil is left alone. Every intensive tillage brings oxygen into the soil, breaks up the crumbs and speeds up decomposition. Building up humus takes years; frequent intensive tillage makes it disappear much faster.
What harms the soil?
Heavy machinery
Farm machinery has become heavier and heavier over the past decades. The wheel load of large harvesters has increased many times over since the 1960s, and with it the pressure reaches deeper into the soil. Especially on moist soil, heavy tires press the pores together. The consequences: water seeps in less easily, roots can barely get through, and soil life lacks oxygen.
Compaction near the surface can recover over years. Compaction in deeper layers, on the other hand, often lasts for decades, sometimes permanently. According to estimates, around a quarter of agricultural subsoils in Europe are compacted.
Bare soil and erosion
Vineyards are among the crops with the highest soil losses in Europe. Where the soil between the rows lies bare, heavy rain washes away valuable earth. Under cover crops, depending on the type, around 70 to 90 percent less soil is lost than on areas that are tilled or kept bare with herbicides.
Chemicals
Residues of pesticides were found in more than 80 percent of the agricultural soils examined in Europe, usually several at once. Studies show that herbicides applied under the vines reduce the mycorrhiza on the vine roots. Some substances, such as DDT, which has been banned for decades, can still be detected in the soil today.
To be honest, organic viticulture is not free of problems here either. Against downy mildew, copper is the most important agent that organic farming allows. Copper does not break down and accumulates in the soil. Vineyard soils in Europe therefore have the highest copper levels of all land uses, to a large extent a legacy of earlier decades in which many times today's quantities were applied. That is why we use copper as sparingly as possible.
What does healthy soil smell like?
Anyone who takes a spadeful of earth from a healthy vineyard smells it immediately: dark, fresh, a little like forest floor. This scent comes mainly from geosmin. Soil bacteria produce it when they form spores, and it attracts tiny springtails that carry the spores onward. Our noses are astonishingly finely tuned to it: in water, we can smell geosmin in traces of just a few billionths of a gram per liter. After a summer rain, when drops fling the scent compounds from the soil into the air, it hangs over the whole vineyard.
Compacted, wet soil, by contrast, smells putrid or sour. Oxygen is lacking there, and microbes switch to metabolic pathways that produce hydrogen sulfide or butyric acid, for example. That is why smelling is part of the spade test used to check the condition of a soil.
By the way: in the vineyard, geosmin indicates active soil life; in wine, however, it is a fault. There it arises mainly when a further mold settles on grapes already affected by botrytis. One more reason why we harvest by hand and bring only healthy grapes into the cellar.
Can you taste the soil in the wine?
Not in the way it is often told. You don't taste limestone or schist in the glass. The minerals the vine draws from the soil usually amount to only one and a half to two grams per liter of wine, mostly potassium, and they don't taste of stone. They are largely supplied by humus and fine clay particles, hardly directly by the rock.
And yet the soil shapes the wine. In a study from Bordeaux, vintage and soil even had a stronger effect on vine and grapes than the difference between grape varieties. The soil decides how much water the vine receives and when, how warm its root zone is, how many nutrients are available to it and how deep its roots reach. A vine that is moderately short of water but never dies of thirst stops growing earlier and forms smaller berries with more concentration. We think you taste this in the wine as depth and length.
Here in Rust this is particularly exciting. In the north lies Leitha limestone, a pale limestone from a warm shallow sea that covered this area around 16 to 11 million years ago – with shells, snails and shark teeth in it. In the south lies the quartz-rich Rust gravel, deposited by ancient Alpine rivers. Added to this are gneiss and mica schist, as pebbles in the gravel and in the ancient bedrock of the Rust hills. Each of these subsoils stores and conducts water and heat differently. That is why a Furmint from the quartz tastes different from a Blaufränkisch from the limestone.
Microbes are part of this, too. Studies show that most of the bacteria on leaves and grapes also occur in the soil – the soil is considered their most important reservoir – and that vineyards differ in their microbial communities. Whether you can taste this in the glass is still scientifically open. For us, it is one more reason to keep the soil alive, especially because our wines ferment spontaneously.
What do we do for our soils?
We are certified organic and do without herbicides, readily soluble mineral fertilizers and chemical-synthetic pesticides. That is the foundation. What really matters, though, is how you work in the vineyard.
Cover crops: Grasses, herbs and flowers grow between our vines. They protect the soil from erosion, feed soil life and provide habitat for insects and birds. In the dry Pannonian climate, however, the cover crops compete with the vines for water. That is why we tend them so that they protect the soil without taking water away from the vines.
Few machines, lots of handwork: Pruning, canopy work and harvest are done by hand. We avoid heavy machinery as far as we can.
Loosening the soil: Where necessary, we loosen the soil so that air and water can penetrate.
Dense planting and head-trained vines: We plant our Furmint with up to 8,000 vines per hectare, each one set by hand. Competition from their neighbors can steer the roots deeper, where they are more likely to find water even in dry summers. With head-trained vines, almost everything is done by hand anyway.
Observing: We observe a lot and intervene only when necessary. The soil shows whether it is doing well: through its smell, its structure and the life it contains.
All of this is the prerequisite for our work in the cellar. If you don't want to correct anything there, you need healthy, evenly ripe grapes. And they only grow on healthy soils. Low intervention begins in the vineyard, and the vineyard begins in the soil.
What does healthy soil have to do with our health?
More than you might think. According to the FAO, around 95 percent of our food grows directly or indirectly on soils. Much of what is in the soil reaches our plates via plants – minerals as well as pollutants. The soil is also our water filter: in Austria, almost all drinking water comes from groundwater and spring water, and before rain becomes groundwater, it usually seeps through the soil. A living, humus-rich soil retains nutrients and pollutants. An over-fertilized soil reaches its limits, and a sealed one cannot do this at all. And finally, the soil is a pharmacy: more than two thirds of the medically used antibiotics of natural origin come from streptomycetes – soil bacteria which, with their scent compound geosmin, also create the typical smell of rain. Protecting the soil therefore means protecting ourselves.
Why is healthy soil even more important with climate change?
Burgenland is getting hotter, and in summer the soils dry out faster. In 2022, Eisenstadt received around a third less rain than the long-term average, there were more than three times as many hot days, and Lake Neusiedl reached its lowest level since measurements began in 1965. At the same time, short heavy downpours are becoming more intense.
So a soil has to be able to absorb a lot of water in a short time and hold it through long dry spells. Only a loose, living soil with good structure can do that. Compacted soil lets the rain run off, exactly when the vines would need it most. For us, healthy soil is therefore not only a question of attitude but the best insurance for the future of our vineyards.
Frequently asked questions about soil in viticulture
What is healthy soil?
Soil that is alive, loose and not contaminated with pollutants. It has enough pores for air and water, diverse soil life and sufficient humus. This allows it to nourish plants, store water and filter it.
What soils are there in Rust?
In the north, Leitha limestone from a primeval sea; in the south, quartz-rich Rust gravel, plus gneiss, mica schist, loam and sand. A large part of our Furmint grows on quartz-rich gravel.
Can you taste the soil in the wine?
Not directly – you can't taste rock. But the soil shapes the wine through water supply, warmth, nutrients and rooting depth.
Why are cover crops important in the vineyard?
They protect against erosion, promote earthworms and soil life, build humus and bring biodiversity. In dry sites, they have to be managed so that they don't take too much water from the vines.
Why do heavy machines harm the soil?
They press the pores together, especially on moist soil. Water seeps in less easily, and roots and soil life suffer. Compaction in deeper layers often lasts for decades.
Is organic automatically good for the soil?
Organic farming does without herbicides, readily soluble mineral fertilizers and chemical-synthetic pesticides, and soil life demonstrably benefits. What really counts, though, are the individual measures: cover crops, little tillage, few passes with machinery and a sparing use of copper.
What does soil have to do with our health?
Almost all of our food grows on soils, and in Austria practically all our drinking water comes from groundwater and spring water that has usually passed through the soil first. In addition, most medically used antibiotics of natural origin come from soil bacteria.
Why does earth smell so good after rain?
Mainly because of geosmin, a scent compound produced by soil bacteria. Raindrops fling it into the air on impact. We humans can smell it in the tiniest traces.
