First, it poured industrial quantities of lime (pulverised limestone or chalk) onto the soil to reduce levels of acidity.

ECONOMIST: Brazilian agriculture

This is thanks in part to the climate and in part to the soil, a mixture of limestone and clay and thousands of fossilized oyster shells (a wine snob could probably even name the type of oyster).

WSJ: Think While You Drink: In Defense of Wine Snobs | On Wine by Lettie Teague