Old Vine Wines

Vintners just outside Los Angeles got together to tend an 18th century vine and return it to production. This year, they released the first wine made from its grapes harvested over the past four years. The Ramona vine, thought to be the oldest in America, is believed to have been planted in the 1770s as the Spanish Franciscans built their Mission St Gabriel. It is a hybrid of the indigenous Vitis Girdiana and the Mission brought from Spain. 

The winemakers studied old Mission records for clues as to how the monks made their wines. They decided to use the Solera system, which is used in Sherry production to blend wines across vintages. Older wines add depth and complexity, and younger must adds acidity and freshness. 

The resulting wine was named Angelica, and includes juice from the 2021, 2022, and 2023 vintages, combined with the initial wine from 2020.

But are old vines any good at producing fine wines? The oldest vine still producing wine is in Maribor in Slovenia and is believed to be 400 years old. What does it mean if you see ‘old vines’, ‘vieilles vignes’, or ‘viñas viejas’ on a wine label? 

Anecdotal evidence suggests that more established vines give a depth to wine that young vines don't. It's possible to make impressive wine with young vines, and there's a known 'virgin vintage' effect where the first crop from young vines is fantastic. The famous Stag's Leap 1973 that won the Judgement of Paris in 1976 was made from three-year-old vines. Typically, follow-on vintages are rarely so spectacular until the vine gets to be at least a decade old.

We have suffered from the same 'virgin vintage' effect. Our first two bottles of wine from the Rondo grapes were exceptional. The next two years were pitiful. We'll see what happens this year which was year 8. 

This is a great article about the age of vines and what happens to the wine.