If "Old Vines" is written on the label, wine fans expect a special wine. This is often true. But be careful: the vines do not have to be old, nor is every wine labelled as such of high quality, reports Matthias Stelzig.
"Old vines" sounds like a family vineyard, tradition and sustainability, depth and complexity. The lettering on the label suggests an exceptional wine. For less knowledgeable wine lovers, it also stands out pleasantly from the labelling regarding the official test number, vineyard name, organic certification, and grape variety information. What the statement "old vines" means seems clear at first glance—but it is not.
A study by California State University has shown that wines labelled "Old Vines" tend to fetch higher prices—even though the objective differences in quality are sometimes only very small. And there is as yet no legal definition of what the designation means.
The oldest Riesling vines in the Mosel vineyard Wehlener Sonnenuhr date back to 1897 and are still in production.
Uwe KaussFrom a German and French perspective, for example, the time window of 30 to 50-year-old vines delivers very good results in terms of wine quality, before things go downhill again on average. For the Historical Vineyard Society, on the other hand, in California with its balanced climate—at least until climate change—a vine younger than 50 years old does not count as old because the vines can still have decades ahead of them.
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine therefore issued a comprehensive recommendation in 2024 for the legally compliant registration of old vineyards. However, the administrative effort involved would be enormous. As a conservation initiative, the blogger Alder Yarrow has launched the free "Old Vine Registry" database as a worldwide reporting centre, which now contains over 10,000 entries of vineyards that are at least 35 years old.
The oldest vineyard in the world still in production is located in Rhodt in the Palatinate. The vines in the Rosengarten vineyard were demonstrably planted over 400 years ago. Wine is still produced from them.
Uwe KaussNevertheless, any label today can say "Old Vines"—no matter how old the vines are. Old vines do not automatically produce better wines. This is especially true for poor genetic material in the vines and for grape varieties of limited quality, which are also often carelessly cultivated in the vineyard. A mass-producing vine in a poor location, whose soil biology has come to a standstill with lots of spraying agents and heavy machinery, does not produce good must—no matter how old the vines are. And even less so if it comes from excessive yields and has been optimised with chemicals in the cellar.
However, if the vineyard is optimally cared for, many advantages for winegrowers develop over the years: in good locations, old vines root deeply, reach many complex soil layers and micronutrients and are less vigorous. The ratio of foliage to fruit is favourable. Over the years, winegrowers observe falling sugar levels and yields, the ripening phase is extended, berries remain smaller and extracts increase. The wines thus become lighter, more mineral, more complex and, in the best cases, express a strong terroir, with more finesse, balance, and depth.
The vines themselves become more resistant to stress factors, especially drought, which ensures the survival of winegrowers in some regions and ensures a consistent yield in other growing areas.
But even this wealth of experience cannot be scientifically proven. "As valuable as these characteristics are," Hubert Konrad explains the problem, "they are not statistically verifiable." The former technical manager of the Institute for Vine Breeding worked for 45 years in experimental cultivation at Geisenheim University. There are hardly any studies on old vines, he says, raising his shoulders. The Californian study came to the conclusion—not surprisingly—that 40 to 60-year-old Zinfandel vines develop more complex flavour profiles than five to twelve-year-old vines. Greater aromatic complexity, richer phenolic structure, and clearer expressions of the terroir were also found in Grenache wines from old vines in Campo de Borja in a study by the University of Zaragoza. However, a study of Riesling vines at Geisenheim University revealed the opposite: the vines, planted in 1971, 1995 and 2012 in one vineyard under identical soil and management conditions, "did not reveal any significant differences in must and wine profiles," reports Hubert Konrad.
The Rings family from the Palatinate VDP winery Rings***** in Freinsheim also experienced this: "No taster suspected young vines when they tasted the first Pinot Noir from 'Felsenstein' in 2013," recalls Simone Rings. The Burgundian Pinot Noir clones in Leistadt in the Palatinate were only three years old—and the vineyard had also lain fallow for decades. But the critics were delighted. "With the right rootstock and terroir, it works," Simone Rings says with a smile. Just two years later, the Pinot vines were now five years old, the VDP classified the Rings monopoly vineyard with a limestone wall as a "Große Lage". However, this does not mean that the Rings family does not like old vines: in 2023, they presented their "Vieilles Vignes Chardonnay" from two plots from 1991 for the first time—the year in which Chardonnay plantings were officially permitted in Germany.
Old vines tell stories about the soil, the slope, and the work of the winegrowers, who often see themselves as rooted in the work of generations and see the vineyard as a cultural asset. But hardly any guide or wine list lists "old vines" as a category. Only South Africa has authorised an official sticker for wines from old vineyards. Under the former state monopoly, all plantations were registered there from 1920.
According to a study of South African wine buyers, however, not even half of them consider the designation to be an important indicator of quality—and that is less than the label for estate bottling. A survey by the website "Wine Opinions" produced similar results: Only 34 per cent voted for "old vines" as a quality indicator. Ironically, the addition "historic vineyard" received 45 per cent. Fittingly, Californian association officials recently stated at the Old Vine Conference that even interested wine fans in the vineyard could not distinguish gnarled, 100-year-old vines from young plants on a wire frame.
Would consumers accept higher prices if they knew better? "You have to be able to taste the difference to the smaller wine," explains Simone Rings. She believes that "old vines" for ten euros a bottle is "probably a marketing stunt". Winegrowers can usually tell exactly the stories about their old vines that marketing professionals like to write—even on the back label: What is the average age of the vines? Where are they located? Are there still a few ungrafted specimens among them? How is the wine made?
In addition to the cultural and historical significance, which does not give connoisseurs an advantage in the glass, this is where the real added value lies: in terms of sensory appeal, wines from precisely cultivated old vines play a league above most of their counterparts. They don't even have to be grown in a "Große Lage" according to VDP criteria or be decades old. VDP winegrower Roman Niewodniczanski has been collecting old vineyards for his Saar wine estate Van Volxem for many years—most recently the Saarburg Laurentiusberg. "I'm extremely happy," he says and his enthusiasm is palpable over the phone. "The plot was demonstrably planted in 1858, before the first tractor was driven, before the first light bulb was lit," he reports. "The vines are thin and gnarled, the berries extremely small." They produce extremely high extract values with low yields. No wonder his name is often mentioned when talking about old vines. The expert Hubert Konrad is also a fan of the Laurentiusberg. He knows it "inside and out" because he spent a long time tracking down clone material there himself, which is now being propagated for a genetic resource project at the Geisenheim Research Centre. Even the best advertising agency could not invent a more fitting story.