The interplay between how the vintner cares for his vineyards, the soil of the vineyards and the microclimate experienced by the vineyards all contribute to the quality and flavour of the wine produced. For example, the depth of the soil allows for storage of moisture which is particularly important during the prolonged sunny periods that are necessary to bring the grapes to full ripeness. The type of soil also influences the wine; chalky soils provide buffering for acidity, whereas quartzite soils provide mineral flavours to the wine. The vintner makes his contribution by grafting different grapevines to rootstocks that are suited to the different soil conditions. In recent times this interplay between vintner, soil and microclimate of a particular vineyard has been recognised with the term "terroir", especially with respect to the Riesling grape because of the distinctive flavours the wine made from this grape can take on in different "terroirs".
The soil in our Oestricher Lenchen, Oestricher Doosberg, and Mittelheimer St. Nikolaus vineyards is typically a deep stony loam of sand loess and loess that is partly chalky in areas. The Mittelheimer Edelmann und Hallgartener Jungfer vineyards have a claylike soil of marl that is difficult to work with and is prone to water saturation. This, however, gives this soil a similar quality to the deep stony loam of sand loess and loess of our other vineyards. The stony quartz soil of our Oestricher Klosterberg vineyard gives these wines their particular mineral flavours, and the calcareous soil of loess and river loam of our Winkeler Jesuitengarten vineyard gives these wines their ripe and full flavours.