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Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your queries to editor@decanter.com
DOES VINE AGE MATTER?
Why do producers always make a big thing of their old vines? What difference does it make in the glass?
Leonard Robinson, by email
Elie Lloyd Ellis, decanter.com Assistant Editor, responds: Old vines, or heritage vines as they are also known, may typically conjure up nostalgic images of gnarly wood, but their importance in today’s winemaking landscape goes much further than aesthetics. Adapted over time, these vines have had to become tolerant to their environments – developing, for example, resistance to drought and disease. Genetic material gained from the preservation of these vines can in turn be used for new plantings, thereby helping to safeguard against potential future problems in a world where climate change is becoming ever more of a threat.
By the very nature of their long-term survival, old vines have often been planted in locations well suited to their varieties, hence many old vines produce grapes that are
