terraces, make work in vineyards planted across sloping land considerably easier, and can also help combat soil erosion. Terraces more or less follow the contours of the land, and so row spacing may be irregular. Terraces are created when the hillside is re-formed into a series of horizontal steps between the rows. The world’s most famous vineyard terraces are those of the port wine region of the douro Valley in northern Portugal, where there has been considerable experimentation with different designs, although they are common in much of switzerland, the northern rhône, and elsewhere.
