Old Vines

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Two old Riesling vines flank a very young vine on the left and right.
Old vines in wireless Goblet- Vines in Châteauneuf-du-Pape .

Old vines ( French: Vieilles Vignes , English: Old Vines ) are becoming increasingly important in wine marketing. Old vines stand for high quality, denser aromas, rare and sought-after wines at appropriate prices. Accordingly, this information appears more and more frequently on wine labels.

Since this designation is not protected, it remains open what exactly “old” means and when a wine should be called that. Still, this marking is a fairly reliable indicator of quality. As a rule, it is understood to mean vines that are at least 40 years old. There are grapevines that are 80 or even 100 years old - they really belong in this category. California has vineyards with Zinfandel grapevines, some of which were planted in the 19th century. Even in isolated locations in Spain one can still find real-root vines from the time before the phylloxera plague. These isolated vines were spared from phylloxera due to special climatic conditions, such as extreme heat and drought. Today they are around 120 years old. The oldest German vines - a Gewürztraminer in the Rhodter Rosengarten - are said to be almost 400 years old and are located in Rhodt unter Rietburg in Germany's oldest vineyard.

From the age of around 20, the yield of the vines decreases significantly and continuously, which means that the grapes are supplied with more ingredients and have a denser and more complex aroma. However, because of the low yield and the rarity of old vines - see phylloxera disaster , in which only a few real-root vines survived - these wines are rare and expensive.

For young vines there is - almost only in France - the term “Jeunes Vignes” (young vines).

Oldest known vines

The oldest known vines are:

  • The Stara Trta in Maribor (Slovenia) is over 400 years old
  • The original grapevine in Margreid ( South Tyrol ) was verifiably planted in 1601 and is therefore over 400 years old
  • The Versoaln in Prissian (South Tyrol) is around 350 years old and is also the largest vine with a plant roof of around 350 m²

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