Viticulture
Old vines
Why age is valued, what the mechanism might be, and why the term guarantees nothing.
Overview
Old vines yield less, and the fruit is widely held to be more concentrated and better balanced. Deeper roots, reduced vigour and a more consistent crop are the plausible mechanisms.
There is no legal definition of "old vine" in most countries, which means the term on a label is a claim rather than a standard. South Africa's Old Vine Project, certifying a verified minimum of 35 years, is the notable exception and is genuinely useful.
Old vineyards are also irreplaceable in a practical sense: a vine planted today will not be old for decades, so losing them is a one-way loss.
The economics work against them — low yields, hand working, no mechanisation — which is why premium pricing for old-vine wine matters for their survival.
The quality advantage of old vines is widely observed and plausibly explained, but hard to isolate experimentally from site selection: old vines survive because they are on good sites.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Wines of South Africa — WOSA
- UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology — University of California, Davis
More in the vineyard
Viticulture
Climate and wine style
The largest single influence on what a wine tastes like — larger than grape, producer or winemaking, and the reason the same variety is unrecognisable in two places.
Viticulture
Climate change and wine
Warming is already reshaping where wine is grown and what it tastes like.
Viticulture
Harvest and picking decisions
When to pick — the single most consequential decision a producer makes each year.