Blog

Age is not a number, except when it is.

Old vines is not the same thing as old grape varieties. These latter were usually indigenous to a region and drunk locally, then often ripped out in favour of internationally recognised varieties. Eventually, some farmers realised that matching vine variety to terroir was more important than cultivating a recognisable varietal per se, and the “autochthones” are making a gradual return with cuttings taken from nurseries and by massale selection. Thus we celebrate grapes such as Caramalet, Prunelart, Noirfleurien, Ribeyrenc Noir, Slarina… which are part of the viticultural heritage of the regions in question.

Age is not a number for vines, but a relative concept. Vines in certain parts of the world (New Zealand, for example) are entitled to be called old vines when they reach their 40^th birthday. In Oregon, 50 is the magic wizened number. Elsewhere, 60 or 70 years may mark the beginning of perceived venerability, with some vines surviving and (re)producing up to 300 years of age. Step forward Chilean Pais from Itata and Bio Bio.

Some old vines have trunks as thick as trees and are often isolated sturdy survivors that still happen to yield a few grapes. One traditional secret to eternal youth is a method of renewal called Provignage, a French term for layering, the process whereby vines are propagated by forcing an already established vine to re-root. A cane from the old vine is bent downwards, and the tip pushed into the soil, and perhaps held in place by a peg or stone. As the summer progresses the tip will root, and once established the original cane can be cut leaving a new vine.

There are several advantages to having old vines in your vineyards. Firstly, they are a link to the past. Secondly, they tend to produce grapes (and thus wines) with intense character. Their roots run deep and pull nutrients, minerals, and water from far below the surface. For this reason, older vines often suffer less vintage variation and tend to be more drought and flood resistant. They also tend to achieve physiological ripeness more readily and need less tending. All massive generalisations, but reasons why old vines is more than a mere badge of honour.

Old vines are not always about power. Many vineyards were co-planted to a variety of red and white grapes. Fermented together, they create a light wine, almost rose in hue, with freshness and lift, probably the kind of wine our ancestors would have consumed and enjoyed.

Rarely does one come across a whole vineyard with the same age of old vines. What you will find is a few gnarled survivors that has resisted all that the climate could throw at them. Phylloxera was the editor-in-chief, whilst a great frost in 1956 (in France) damaged many vineyards beyond salvation and disease.

There is something inherently noble about the idea of old vines, as in with old vines comes great wisdom.

Place: Cahors, Southwest France

Grape: Malbec

Producer: Clos de Gamot, Vignes Centenaires

Vine age: 137 years old

The vines in question were planted in 1885 as a kind of last resort to stave off the threat of phylloxera.  Guillaume Jouffreau, for it was he, decided to collect the last vine shoots of Malbec from Clos de Gamot to try to graft them onto another rootstock. The Malbec on a Herbemont’s rootstock turned out to be success and Guillaume saved the vineyard. The family has always favoured gentle extraction is why they decided to work with large wooden barrels, as opposed to new oak. The Vignes Centenaires present aromas of violet, raspberry and redcurrant with a characteristic hint of Malbec menthol and smoke. Full-bodied on the palate, with a tannic structure that reinforces the aromas. The ageing potential is phenomenal – 50+ years.

Place: Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Grape: Carignan

Producer: Lo Vielh, Clos du Gravillas

Vine age: 111 years old

AKA the old one.

This gnarly Carignan was planted in 1911. The vines demand a lot of work and attention but pays back in spades. The vineyard soil from the Cazelles terroir is exceptional, as crumbly as desired due to very lively humus and a perfect amount of stoniness.  Aged in 400 litre Allier oak barrels, the fruit is dark and velvety and is truly delicious. Virtually no sulphur is used (the fermentation lasts around six months) and the wine seems to have soaked up a huge amount of minerals and as well thyme, bay leaf and balsam.. The fruit is blueberry-ripe with liquorice swirls and hint of tobacco. There are also discernible meaty undertone. Pure power and pure elegance.

Place: Rhone Valley, France

Grape: Grenache (plus others)

Producer: Chateauneuf-du-Pape Pure Domaine La Barroche

Vine age: 110 years old

Plot of 100 year old vines (mostly Grenache) planted on the sandy soils of the Rayas sector, found on the way to Courthezon from Châteauneuf. The picking is entirely by hand, with a meticulous double sorting in the vineyard. The winemaking is very traditional with some stem inclusion and ageing in underground cement tanks and very old foudre. The more ancient the Grenache, the more terroir it seems to gobble. The Pure is a deep bright-rimmed ruby, its nose exuding a classic bold perfume of wild strawberries, kirsch, and black cherries mixed with exotic spices, crushed flowers, liquorice and earthy notes. Red fruits such as cherries, raspberries and strawberries can be found on the full-bodied palate with hints of dried herbs and spices adding complexity. The long booming finish has smooth tannins.

Place: Saint Joseph, France

Grape: Syrah

Producer: Hervé Souhaut St Epine

Vine age: 105+ years old

Herve’s vines are located on the right bank of the Rhone valley, opposite the Hermitage hill. This soil has always been recognized as being one of the best areas for wine production, thanks to its south-eastern and southern exposure and warm climate of the Doux river delta. The soil consists of a strong acidic granite (base hercynite, crystalline lens if you are a nerd for these things). The grapes from this particular plot are manually harvested, kept in whole bunches and undergo a long maceration at low temperature in stainless steel and fibre glass vat. Maturation is on fine lees in second-hand oak casks for one year and the wine is bottled without filtration or fining and just 25 ppm total sulphites. Mulberries and raspberries combine on the nose with black olives aromas and herbes de Provence notes. The palate begins delicately, with fine red fruits and tannins before developing in strength and graininess.

Place: Rhone Valley, France

Grape: Grenache

Producer: Domaine Gramenon La Meme Ceps Centenaire

Vine age: 125+ years old

La Mémé (the grandmother) is from 120-year-old Grenache bush-vines rooted in sandstone and shell-sand soils (the sandstone, a molasse layer made by the maritime influence of tides pushing against the coast some twelve million years ago). Farming is carried out according to biodynamic principles; yields are naturally low (around 20 hl/ha) and grapes are carefully hand harvested. Partial whole clusters are macerated for 18-days in open concrete tanks with daily punching down, fermentation is done with natural yeasts, and the wine is aged for 12-months in used (5-10-year-old) 225 and 228 litre barriques, before bottling without filtration, fining and usually without any sulphur added.

The wine is generally dark garnet in colour, with intense heady aromatics, full of ripe fruit, spices and earthy/vegetal notes. The palate is vibrant revealing a range of flavours from menthol, black fruits and tamarind, alongside lightly roasted herbs, bound together by good freshness and a long finish. Like so many women vigneronnes Michèle is behind the wine, not occluding flavours through layering winemaking technique, but painting the fruits of her amazing terroir.  A wine that combines power with grace, old vines wisdom with fruit-energy verve.

Place: Loire Valley

Grapes: Chenin & Cabernet Franc

Producer: Sylvie Augereau VdF Pulpes & Manquant

Vine age: 100 years old

Sylvie’s half hectare of vines is planted with 100-year-old Chenin and a little Cab Franc. The soil is rather sandy with flecks of red caused by the presence of a little iron on the hill. The ground is strewn with large white shells. Pulpes is 100% Chenin Blanc from 100 year old vines, situated between Saumur and Angers in the Loire Valley. The vines are farmed organically and biodynamically and direct pressed to barrel for fermentation with indigenous yeasts and ageing for a further 24 months on lees. No filtration, no fining and no added sulphites. A big boned white with bruised apple and quince aromas and flavours and masses of spice and phenolics (orchard fruit skins) on the palate. Then there is Les Manquants, 100% Cabernet Franc from a 100 + year old vines plot on clay limestone. The grapes undergo a weeklong maceration in fibreglass and then the juice is transferred into used barrels, where it ages for a further 24 months. This is Angevine Cab Franc in all its power and glory. Inky-dark, robust, sanguine (you can almost taste liquidised iron in the wine). Masses of dark cherry fruit, peppered with herbs and pepper. Intense tannins leavened by excellent acidity.

Place: Saumur-Champigny

Grape: Cabernet Franc

Producer: Thierry Germain, Les Memoires Rouge

Vine age: 117 years old

Old vines planted in 1904 overlooking the Loire River on flint and limestone soils. Thierry and family farm organically and biodynamically with light work of the soil to preserve the old vines and maintain a great floral diversity. After a manual harvest, the grapes are destemmed with fermented in open cement vats of 45hl at a temperature of 16- 22°c to extract maximum aromas. The colour is an intense ruby red, dense and concentrated. The nose reveals subtle nuances of menthol, red fruit liqueur and wild strawberry. A complex wine, both powerful and subtle true to the terroirs and reveals a great mineral purity on the finish.

Place: Savoie

Grape: Jacquère

Producer: Domaine Dupraz Montracul Blanc

Vine age: 115 years old

Montracul Blanc comes from clay and marl soils, situated on steep slopes in Apremont. Le Reposoir was spared from the landslide of Mt Granier that occurred in 1248, and the soils of the estate therefore differ completely from the other climates of the Apremont cru. These old vines planted in 1908 in the direction of the prevailing wind are looked after with organic viticulture. All work is carried out by hand, of course. The wine is almost opaque in appearance, with a straw colour. The first impression is of a honeyed character. The nose subtly reveals gunflint, civet, dried fruit and candied orange, beeswax and hay. On the palate, the above flavours come into play with plenty of salinity and a gentle finish.

Place: Auvergne

Grape: Gamay d’Auvergne

Producer: Domaine Maupertuis, Pierres Noires

Vine age: 120 years old

Jean Maupertuis tends 3.8 hectares of vines in the commune of Saint-Georges-sur-Allier and La Roche Noir. He works principally with a local strain of Gamay referred to as “Gamay d’Auvergne” but also owns a little bit of Pinot Noir and a tiny amount of Noirfleurien, an ancient local variety found only in the neighbouring village of Mirefleurs. Most of his vines are aged between 40 and 120+ years. Jean doesn’t use chemical fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides in the vineyard, preferring to work his soils and develop their indigenous microflora. The terroir here is limestone on clay matrix with a landslide of volcanic basalt phonolites, the Pierres Noires being particularly rich in basaltic residues. A touch of the barnyard when the wine is first opened combined with some floral notes. This dissipates quickly but leaves behind a topsoil smell that accompanies the raspberry notes. Sour cherry and pomegranate seed flavours mingle with earthiness too. The finish is peppery, savoury and more than a touch smoky. A remarkable living mountain Gamay. A Gamay as nature intended, organic, unfiltered and unsulphured, as prickly as a hedgehog with ants in his pants, a dark pickled damson strut across the tongue, and you should drink it with alacrity from a pot Lyonnais with some tripoux or “Truffade” a baked mixture of sliced potatoes and Tome de Cantal.

Place: Beaujolais

Grape: Gamay

Producer: Domaine Thillardon, Chénas Vibrations, Domaine Thillardon

Vine age: 100 years old vines

Vibrations comes from very old vines, being a blend of vine blocks with different aspects and soils.. The granite soils yield tiny quantities of grapes. This is modern whole cluster, carbonic maceration with indigenous yeast then matured eight months in 50% neutral oak, 50% concrete tanks. Completely natural, no filtration, no fining, no sulphites added. Lively and bright with a lovely bounce of acidity, chewy cherries and raspberry pit and a rasp of white pepper and dried herb character to finish off. A pure, energetic superdigestible style of cru Beauj.

Place: Burgundy

Grape: Aligoté

Producer: De Moor Plantation 1902

Vine age: 120 years old

The Aligoté Plantation comes from a 0.5 hectare vineyard planted in 1902. The vineyard is near the village of Saint-Bris-le-Vineux and lies on Kimmeridgian soil on rocky surface and subsoil that alternates between mother and clay rock. The De Moors have worked their vines organically since 2005, a  comparative rarity in the region. Rigorous pruning, sensible de-budding and careful canopy management with manual leaf thinning are all carried out to control the yields and ensure the best, most expressive grapes. Wild grasses are allowed to grow between the rows, and they work the vines using a horse. Hand harvested, wild ferment in oak barrels with natural malolactic fermentation, before maturation in old Burgundian oak for 11 months. No fining or filtration and minimal use of sulphites and only at bottling. Fermented and aged in old oak this an Aligoté to age, extremely tight and high in stony acidity with citrus fruits and herbal aromas, very dense and long. This winespeak does not do justice to a wine which shimmers with authority – it has dense – or intense – transparency in the way that only wines with “perfect pitch” acidity can seem to glisten. Then the nose – glacier water buffing up a river stone, gorse flowers drenched with sea spray, all nostril-arching brilliance and then into the palate – linear, citric (juice plus pith), tears-of-chalk-stony, with tensile strength and just a smattering of lees spice. Liquid steel, this wine is an exhilarating skate across the palate. To coin a phrase, it takes you hither and Yonne.

Place: Spain

Grape: Albillo

Producer: Alfredo Maestro, Lovamor

Vine age: 120 years old

Over time, Alfredo has accumulated nine hectares across Castilla y León and La Mancha along with establishing a second small bodega near Madrid. Lovamor is made with fruit sourced from low-yielding 100-120-year-old Albillo bush-vines grown at 800-1100 metres elevation in the Ribera del Duero. Here the soils are sandy, clay-calcareous, and the climate is Spanish-continental with cold winters, hot days and cold nights during the summer months, all of which combine to produce wines with robust fruit and brisk acidity if the grapes are farmed well and picked at the right time. This cuvee sees a wee bit of skin contact and is fermented with wild yeasts in steel vats with 6 days of skin. It matures in vat on the lees, clarifies naturally over the winter, and is eventually bottled unfined & unfiltered without the addition of SO2. Lovamor’s appearance is slightly turbid and pink-tinged with savoury, funky notes woven through orchard fruits, flowers, and mineral notes as well as a red apple skin, phenolic bite on the dry finish. And we have a lot of love/amore for the label, little Red Riding Hood planting a smacker on the lips of the wolf.

Place: Campania, Italy

Grapes: Tintore di Tramonti; Piedirosso

Producer: Monte de Grazia Bianco & Rosso

Vine age: 120 year old

In the 1990’s, Alfonso Arpino, a doctor from the village of Tramonti, took over his family’s vineyard. He soon became passionate about wine-producing and bought further vineyards which contained ancient wines of well over 100-years-old (some were 200-year-old), these various vineyards planted with ancient, native Campanian vines such as Piedirosso and Tintore, and Ginestra, Pepella, and Bianca Tenera. The climate is influenced by the wind coming from the south-west which softens the summer heat, and the mountains and wind from the north in winter which “cleanse” the vineyards. Composed of terraces with “ciglioni” (borders of the terraces), overgrown with wild grasses, which were formed by numerous eruptions of the nearby Mount Vesuvius, the two types of soil comprise: Turece – sand and lapilli. and Terra vulpegna – argillaceous. The vines are trained according to the traditional method tendone method with the leaves forming an overhead canopy that protects the grapes from the sun. Harvest takes places for the Monte di Grazia Rosso at the end of October/early November, depending on vintage. This wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation in tank with 15-days of maceration followed by ageing in stainless steel for three years and then normally a short period in chestnut barrels. Dark in colour, almost black-violet, the nose invites you in with bright cherry and stalky dark fruits. Plum, spice and lots of dark fruits, with succulent red and dark fruit palate, with hallmark freshness. The sapidity of the wine is remarkable.

Place: Umbria, Italy

Grape: 100% Trebbiano Spoletino

Producer: Paolo Bea, Arboreus Bianco

Vine age: 150 years old (some)

The vineyards are planted in the low hills between Trevi and Montefalco at an elevation of 200 metres asl with a range of parcels facing east and southwest. The vines are trained using an ancient method, wherein they are enmeshed with trees to grow up their trunks so the fruit dangles high above the ground. Some of them are pushing 150 years of age, only adding to the complexity and depth of the wine. The soils here are essentially clay and gravel. The philosophy here is straightforward: Understand the terroirs and the cycles of nature, limit use of treatments in the vineyards (nothing synthetic), trust nature and the transformation of grapes into wine, avoid intervening too much. Harvest occurs during the first two weeks of October and the wine is left in contact with the skins for up to three weeks and is then aged in stainless steel barrels for at least two years prior to bottling.  No filtration. no fining and no added sulphites. This would be a great wine to start your journey into the land of orange (should you be a neophyte in these matters). Pronounced but well integrated tannins are driven by good acidity. Almond, marzipan, and apricot on the palate. Very smooth and agreeable finish.

Place: Etna, Italy

Grapes: Grenache, Minnella Nera, Grecanico, Minnella Bianca and other local varieties

Producer: I Vigneri, Vinudilice Rosato

Vine age: 200 years old (some)

The legendary Vigna Bosco vineyard in Contrada Nave, North Etna is situated at 1,200m above sea level. The highest vineyard in Sicily, perhaps Italy too. Soils comprise lava outcrops and volcanic ash. The vineyard, extending over a mere 0.5 hectares, is around 100 years old with some ancient specimens in there, trained in the traditional albarello goblet training using Etnean chestnut stakes. Vines are farmed organically with an emphasis on biodiversity (local plants and grasses grow between the vines). All work is with traditional implements and donkeys. Manual harvest takes place in late-October with direct pressing of the whole grapes with static and natural decantation of the must for approximately 30 hours , A pied de cuve starts the alcoholic fermentation which lasts for 16 days, and the wine is aged in stainless steel tanks for 5 months and bottled without filtration, just a natural decantation and no added sulphur. Salmon in colour, the wine is delicate and extremely fine with a core of ripe boysenberry and raspberry fruit, a nice lick of juniper and a hint of cool wet rocks on the finish. Fresh, vibrant and long on the palate this is an incredibly pure wine from an incredible site.

Other centenarian vines include:

Lebanon: Phoenix skin contact, Mersel Wine – 150-year-old Merwah

Itata, Chile: A Los Vinateros Bravos Pais Volcanico – old bush vines, some probably as old as 200 years

Bio Bio, Chile: Mauricio Gonzalez Pipeno Pais – see above

Colchagua, Chile: Metic Cabernet Sauvignon – 120-year-old vines

California: Naomi, Ruth Lewandowski – 105-year-old Grenache Gris

*

Interested in finding out more about the wines mentioned? Contact us directly:

shop@lescaves.co.uk |  sales@lescaves.co.uk | 01483 538820