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Old vines celebrated at biggest conference to date

As the name clearly suggested, the focus of a full two days of talks and tastings, plus additional field visits, was a deep dive into the characteristics and benefits that old vines can deliver, with emphasis on protecting this endangered but precious resource.

In her opening address, event co-organiser and old vine champion Sarah Abbott MW explained the value of old vines, while also highlighting how undervalued this resource currently is.

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“Wines’ greatest resource is old vines,” she said. “This global gathering shows the unifying impulse of the old vine movement, even at a time of existential threat for our industry… I firmly believe we can change the odds.”

What followed this rallying cry was a deep dive into both the reasons that old vines are endangered worldwide, and the very compelling reasons to save and nurture this viticultural heritage.

California as a host location, with its remarkable old vine heritage – Zinfandel, plus much more besides – provided a readily understandable model for the issues at stake, with the mix of less profitable low yields and issues such as urban spread impacting on the maintenance of old vine vineyards.

However, set against this, the conference time and again set out the benefits of old vines, ranging from the importance of protecting and saving a wide gene pool, with upsides ranging from the typically greater resilience of old vines in the face of climate change and disease, to the added consumer choice allowed by many examples of less mainstream varieties in older vineyards.

The Old Vine Registry, set up to log and help protect and promote old vines, has set the age for defining ‘old vines’ at 35 years (as does the OIV), with this being beyond the usual age at which vineyards are grubbed up and replanted to help ensure a more ‘commercial’ yield. But many of the samples shown in various tastings throughout the conference days showed wines benefitting from up to 100 years or more of vine age, often with truly remarkable balance, and showing such wines own ability to age gracefully over the decades.

Any sense that the above sounds somewhat like wishful or romantic thinking was also quashed by a remarkable piece of research (as reported in Harpers) presented by José Ignacio Gracia Lopez, director & technical secretary of Spain’s Campo de Borja estate. This scientific study, in collaboration with the University of Zaragoza, showed that wines made from old vine Garnacha have both greater ageing capacity and expression of site-specific aromas compared to wines made from younger vines.

Among the many speakers and contributors, including Jancis Robinson MW, legendary Ridge winemaker Paul Draper (both pictured) and Ravenswood’s Joel Patterson (to name just a few luminaries), South African old vine champion Rosa Kruger perhaps best summed up the motivation to protect and promote old vines in the face of a global decline in old vine vineyards.

“Old vines embody tradition, heritage and diversity”, she said, joining others in the call to ensure that the stories of old vines be heard. This, Kruger added, is necessary to in turn help achieve the premium needed to ensure that farmers and grape growers are adequately recompensed for continuing to grow such valuable resources.

“Nature is our colleague,” cautioned Kruger, talking of the need for a change in mindset. “It is not a tool or a factory.” And, as the Old Vine Conference clearly showed, there is a growing movement to protect what nature can and does deliver when it comes to our collective – and very precious – old vine heritage.

A full write up from The Old Vine Conference will appear in the December issue of Harpers.

• wine
• California
• zinfandel
• Sarah Abbott MW
• old vine conference
• Rosa Kruger