Full Belly Files | Can Old Vines Get Official?

This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on June 30, 2023. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

In an industry that’s awash in romantic notions of beautiful places, interesting personalities, and authentic connections to the past, few ideas pull on the wine world’s heartstrings more strongly than the allure of old vines, those gnarled plants that continue to produce quality wines many decades, and even many generations, after first taking root.

I’ve been fascinated with old vines since the earliest days of my wine writing career, when I started to appreciate how directly they link today to yesterday, While carrying familiar flavors and textures through the vintages, the vines serve as repositories for tales about each vineyard and the people who’ve cared for it over the years, which is simply storytelling gold as both a journalist and interested consumer. I’ve written stories and spoken on podcasts directly about old vines (see: here, here, here, here, and here), and the topic is frequently woven into my other features as well (like here, here, and here).

As I’ve researched and reported on old vines throughout the years, I’ve run into a number of minor debates and curious questions around the topic. The age of many vineyards really depends on who you talk to and which story you believe. Without proper documentation, which can be spotty the further you go back, you wind up relying on anecdotal information, or historical photographs, or other auxiliary evidence that can sometimes be pieced together to reach a likely origin date.

There’s also the question of what makes a vine “old.” Should we only celebrate vines that are more than a century old, or should we move that meter back closer to the present?

And last but not least, is there a true value to these old vines? Did they survive because they were especially good vines to begin with, or are they actually better because they’re old? Do they make better wines? If so, why?