Alsace seems to have been made for the wine growing. The collapse, 50 million years ago, of the central part of an ancient mountain range gave birth to the Vosges on one side, the Black Forest on the other, and in the centre, a plain where the Rhine flows.
The vineyards benefit from the natural mountainous screen formed by the Vosges, which protect them from the weather and the influence of the oceanic climate. Geological faults have caused a wide variety of rocks to come to the surface: sand, gravel, marl, loess, limestone, clay, slate, granite, and even volcanic rocks.
The character of each wine depends on the soil, and one can quickly distinguish a Gewürztraminer from a granitic soil from one planted on a shell limestone's soil.