Wine Marketing Board Grapes

The following information provides a very detailed and descriptive view of the Riverina region, its history and main geographical features.

The Riverina plains were deposited by the action of ancient streams upon the remnants of the Great Dividing Range and thus consist of highly variable alluvial soils with sands and gravels embedded in clays. The main soil type of the Riverina is red-brown earth. It has a loamy surface horizon 10-35 cm deep and passes abruptly to a reddish-brown clay which contains lime at a depth of about 70 cm. Most of these red-brown earths, although deposited by ancient streams, have been elevated above the general plain level and are found around the lower hill slopes and river ridges. Many of these contain limestone rubble. It is on these soils which are generally free-draining around Griffith and Leeton that the majority of the regions vines are planted. The City of Griffith is central to the region, lying at the foothills of a low range of hills rising above the Murrumbidgee Valley. Land to the East, South and West of Griffith is generally flat comprising traditional red/brown earths ranging from duplex soils in the horticultural areas to heavy cracking clays of the floodplain soils. To the North West there are patches of Mallee high calcium soils.