Old-vine wines – just what does that mean? There are many confusing indicators on wine labels that are all intended to instill consumer confidence that this is one special bottle of wine.
Without strict government or industry standards, wineries can make many statements that are ambiguous at best. For example, if every wine that you see produced by a specific winery is labeled “reserve,” that should give you a few reservations. After all, you can’t have peaks without valleys.
The term “old vines,” or what marketing gurus may call “ancient vines” or “gnarly vines,” can have a pretty broad chronological spectrum, based on the specific winery relative to the history of its region. This reminds me of a slick lick laid down by a blues and jazz legend, Les “The Man” McCann, when he sang, “Trying to make it real – compared to what?”
California rules the cellar in the United States (often referred to as part of the “New World”) when it comes to boasting about the age of vines, and rightfully so, as there are many really old, twisted, stumpy great-great-grandpa vines dotting the vineyards of Northern California.
Many of these vines are older than the oldest living human on the planet and mainly comprise Mediterranean grape varieties, with zinfandel (known in Italy as primativo) as the front-runner. I recently had the pleasure of sampling a zinfandel from the Russian River Valley, where all the fruit used to make the wine came from vineyards planted in 1900. Now that certainly qualifies as old-vine wine, particularly when you consider the overall commercial wine production history of California.
Then we should consider the Old World and compare a 100-year-old vine to the history of Italy or France, where our “old vines” will appear adolescent. The Antinori family in Italy has been making wine since 1385 in Tuscany and Umbria. That’s 26 generations of a family-run winery, or well over 600 years. I had the honor of attending a winemakers dinner featuring that 26th generation and was awestruck with the history, tradition and tireless commitment to invention.
Marchese Piero Antinori reflected, “Ancient roots play an important role in our philosophy, but they have never held back our spirit of innovation. There are many books in our extremely old library, but they are never enough for us. Our mission is not yet complete: We are driven to express the vast potential of our vineyards and reconcile all that is new and undiscovered with Tuscany’s traditional, cultural, agricultural, artistic and literary heritage. These things represent the identity of Antinori, and one of our greatest strengths is that we are in Tuscany – our essential ‘Tuscan-ness’, if you will.”
And in France there is an area called La Clappe that has had continuously planted vineyard lands since the days of the Roman Empire.
In Washington, there was not much of a wine-growing or producing industry until just the last couple of decades, which means our wine region is embryonic. If vines are 25 to 30 years old, as is the case with Woodward Canyon’s “Old Vine” cabernet sauvignon, then they qualify, based on our standards and history.
Vine age does indeed have an impact on the quality of finished wine. It takes about three years (or “third leaf,” as the industry puts it) to get grapes with the right ripeness to make a quality wine. And then after a certain number of vintages, based on the grape variety, the vines will fizzle in terms of quantity, but still can put out some great raw materials to produce amazing wine. That is definitely the case with the California zinfandel I mentioned earlier. These gnarled old vines have about 12-inch trunks, and in some cases shoot out just one clump of grapes per vine.
Here are a couple old-vine wines from around the world that just might clarify the issue through proactive participation. Caution: The wines are so good, moderation may be challenging.
Gamba 2005 Old Vine Russian River Zinfandel, $45
This is quite simply a blockbuster. There may be zinfandels different from this beauty, but I don’t think there are any better. Available through Cascade Trade Imports and from select specialty retailers.
The 100-year-old (and then some) grenache vines from the Campo de Borja region of Spain produce a real star. This is the winery’s flagship wine; it was selling for $45 but now can be found for about $20.
Cline 2005 Ancient Vines Zinfandel, $18
Ancient Vines Zinfandel draws primarily from a wide selection of our oldest, most historic and shyest-bearing zinfandel blocks in Contra Costa County. Grapes were planted by Italian and Portuguese immigrants in the sandy, phylloxera-resistant soils of Oakley, Calif., more than 100 years ago.
Online resources for finding wines include www.winesearcher.com and www.wineaccess.com. Call stores to verify availability.
Jeff Wicklund can be reached at 425-737-2600, 360-756-0422 or wick@purplesmilewines.com.
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