Often in these wines you will get soft concentrated fruit and tannin with a good amount of acidity. Where once these vines made wines of elegance, they now make wine that are regal. So if these old vines are producing less fruit that would mean very low yields which should equal a higher price, right? Well yes and no. So what gives? Because Zinfandel was planted during the gold rush and became so popular that it continued to be planted everywhere from the Sierra Foothills in the east to Sonoma and beyond, there is a ton of old vine Zinfandel in California.
And we all know what excess supply does to price from our college economics course, right? As of there were about 50, acres of land under zinfandel vines. Some of these vines are well over one hundred years old. And because there is really no rules about labeling, a wine brand can say Old Vine and only have a small percentage blended in for marketing purposes, which makes the quality of the lower price points spotty.
Which leads me to that Spanish wine I was talking about earlier. They are dry, arid places that grow the native Garnacha grape. The majority of the vines here are well over fifty years old and maintained by co-operatives, ventures owned collectively by many members, who are able to pool their resources cutting costs and enjoying EU protected subsidies.
When I first started in wine retail I was floored by the quality to price ratio. If possible, do a side-by-side comparison of two wines produced from the same grape — one old vine, one new vine. Erik Neilson is a professional freelance writer based in Portland, ME.
In addition to being a professional writer, Erik is a critically-acclaimed musician and has released multiple albums under a variety of different projects, including the dark Americana act The Ghosts of Johnson City. Your email address will not be published.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Toggle navigation Learn Call Call Young Vs. Erik Neilson on February 20, 0 Comments. Here are some of the answers. While vines produce less fruit as they age, the fruit they do produce tends to be more concentrated, leading to a more concentrated wine. The longer they live, the deeper their roots, so older vines are also less likely to be adversely impacted by drought conditions or variations in temperatures, leading to less variation from vintage to vintage.
They also ripen more consistently. There are a number of elements that come into play here. Geography is an important factor — some regions are simply harder to grow grapes in than others. For example, grapes generally need well-draining soil, appropriate levels of rainfall and reliable hours of sunshine to thrive.
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