This is fairly high above the southwestern ridge of the Dry Creek Valley. It’s an interesting place, with a change of soils that occurs in a few feet.
As one drives up past where the shade in the photo is, there is a ridge to the right that separates the foreground from the background. The soil on either side of this spine is extremely different; with the stuff in the far portion of the photo showing reds and golds (an Aiken series soil, with lots of weathered sandstone), while the stuff in the foregorund (slightly obscured by gravel) is decidedly more brown/gray (An Altamont series with a mix of rocks, including igneous rock). The adjacent vineyards show this clearly, but this is kind of a “bright line”.
Weathering, plate movement, etc etc all contribute to make this occur, but every time I drive by I am reminded why not every part of every vineyard expresses the same- within a few feet soil and subsoil conditions can change dramatically.
Probably only of interest to a few geeks with dwindling demands of harvest on their hands…
[/url]