Growing interest in wines from old vines, an expression of the ultimate connection with terroir

Italian wine, too, has its “patriarchs”: the old vineyards, ranging from 70 to over 200 years old, which still populate the territories where wine has been produced since ancient times, from Trentino to Sicily, from Piedmont to Tuscany, from Friuli Venezia Giulia to Veneto, from Campania to Puglia, and whose historical, cultural and genetic value is priceless. Because, as Professor Attilio Scienza, among the world’s leading viticulture experts, points out to WineNews, “beyond beauty, the most important aspect from a scientific point of view of monumental vineyards is resilience, and a genetic heritage that has allowed these plants to survive time, disease and climate change. Resilient genes that, today, can be identified thanks to epigenetics. And if new plants can be born from their wood, studying their germplasm is interesting because it is the result of choices made to respond to productive and environmental conditions different from our own. All of this is crucial for the viticulture of the future”. For this reason, old vines are a unique heritage of biodiversity and need special care, from the wineries that are their “keepers,” thanks to the know-how of top experts. Like Marco Simonit, creator, with Pierpaolo Sirch, of the “Simonit & Sirch Vine Master Pruners” and the pruning method with which they take care of the vineyards of the world’s most prestigious wineries (from Château d’Yquem to Château Latour, from Château Angelus to Domaine Leroy, from Hennessy to Louis Roederer, from Biondi-Santi to Ferrari, from Bellavista to Feudi di San Gregorio, from Alois Lageder to Sella & Mosca, and Allegrini, among others). Simonit explains, to Winenews, that “the world’s top wineries are increasingly trying to bring their vineyards to a certain resilience because, over time, they are able to have more connection with the terroir and produce wines that are the ultimate expression of the terroir. But it is difficult to find them in good condition because of the lack of prior domestication, from farming to pruning, which has compromised their structure”.
An interest on the wave of which the “Old Vine Conference”, a worldwide movement to enhance and safeguard historic vines and spread their culture and values, was born, and which has brought together companies that own “patriarchs of the vine” around the world, in order to study their genetic heritage and resilience to climate change, so that the global wine industry can for the future focus even more on wine quality, production safety, and communicating the value of all this to the consumer”, explains Leo Austen, the co-founder with Masters of Wine Sarah Abbott and Alun Griffiths. Conference, brought together, yesterday, the “custodians” of Italian monumental vines - from San Leonardo to Aquila del Torre, from Gini to Roeno, from Villa Bogdano 1880 to Zymé, from GD Vajra to Malvirà, from Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Gresy to Vinchio Vaglio, from Castello di Albola to Fattoria Fibbiano, from Marchesi Antinori to Feudi di San Gregorio, from Alta Mora-Cusumano to Benanti, from I Custodi delle Vigne dell'Etna to Tenute dei Ciclopi, just to name a few - at the “All of Italy” event at Tenuta Sette Ponti, in Valdarno, Tuscany (WineNews was there: our video story will be online in the coming days, ed.). And where is the Vineyard of the Empire planted in 1935 by Amedeo di Savoia Duke of Aosta to celebrate the conquest of Abyssinia and the birth of the Italian Colonial Empire, now owned by the Moretti Cuseri family, just a few steps from Ponte Buriano, the background of the most famous painting in the world: “The Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci (as we told in a video).

After all, taking care of old vines is like taking care of a work of art, “and, for us, with its 89 years of age, it is the ‘wise vineyard’ that still produces, albeit only 35 quintals of grapes, compared to the 60-70 of a vineyard in full form, but its clusters are pure poetry, and thanks to a root system that goes very deep it has its own way of feeding itself and collecting water, and a planting sixth that reaches almost 3.8 meters wide, which would be unthinkable today because of the waste of terroir, but which was used to pass the carts”, says Amedeo Moretti Cuseri, ceo & marketing director Italy Tenuta Sette Ponti and AnimaEtnea, the Sicilian winery of the Moretti Cuseri family on Etna, “which is why we have a team that deals exclusively with the pruning of the ’father' of all our Sangiovese, the result of its mass selection”.
Also “our 100-year-old vines are like monuments, requiring great care, and like a work of art, they are a bridge between the past and the future, in that they hand down a tradition also in terms of breeding, which is the key to planting the vines of the future”, stresses Antonio Capaldo, owner of Feudi di San Gregorio in Irpinia, which has some wonderful and productive pre-Fillers vines from Campania, “pergola-trained, 3-meter, nearly 180-year-old vines that represent not only an extraordinary genetic heritage that we replant in new vineyards, but also forms of cultivation that were quantitative rather than qualitative, and that are interesting today in terms of countering climate change. Not coincidentally, all forms of farming are evolving into mixed, between modern, super-rational ones, and ancient ones that preserved the plant perhaps more carefully”.
An old vine has, in fact, “more controlled and slower reactions in response to sudden climatic changes, from rains to high temperatures, due to the depth of its roots. Because of the size of the trunk and roots, then, it has the ability to support grapes differently, for the same production, than a young plant. The less dense planting density, therefore, allows the plants to feed even under critical conditions of temperature and humidity. But, above all, they represent the history of their variety, so they can also be exhausted in terms of economic management, but we must not lose their genetic heritage, an absolute wealth also for the diversification of the same variety. This is the greatness of the old vines”, and, for this reason, they are important for the future of the wine world, according to Renzo Cotarella, ceo and oenologist Marchesi Antinori, a historic Italian wine family whose legendary wines come from some of the oldest vineyards in Tuscany.
“Today we are witnessing a change in even extreme weather conditions, to which the old vines are resisting better, managing to produce quality grapes, because they have an ability to adapt to the land, soil and microclimate that the young ones do not have, and which, as for man, is the result of experience”, adds Alessandro Gallo, managing director Castello d'Albola, the estate with are historic vineyards and symbol of Chianti Classico. But “it is not necessarily the case that an old vine is synonymous with great grapes and great wine”, warns Celestino Gaspari, owner of Zymé, a winery in the Veneto region that was born thanks in part to a passion for the recovery of ancient native vines, “it depends on how it was raised and how it lived. In itself it doesn't need much, really, because it already has a great capacity to adapt to time and weather: the ideal is to minimize operations, organic because it's natural, and let it express itself as it can based on its experience. She doesn't need anything else but to be respected. Kind of like an elder”.
And if wineries are studying the resilience of old vines with a view to the future, interest in wines from old vines is also growing around the world from enthusiasts. “Towards which the approach is different not only in the vineyard, but also in the winery”, as Beppe Caviola, among the most established oenologists on the Italian scene and beyond, explains, ”because yes they tend to produce little, but the quality is sublime and the complexity of the wines is different and very reflective of the characteristics of the territory. This is why viticultural practices must be very respectful in the vineyard, but also in the winery where the production and winemaking technique must be able to enhance the specific characteristics and connotations of the old vines”.
“The low yields of these vineyards give the wines stronger aromas and taste, partly due to the ability of the old vines to adapt to the changing climate”, according to the authoritative Master of Wine, Susan Hulme, “so they really represent the terroir, and their wines are interesting because they are the only ones that fully express the peculiarities of a particular place. For wine lovers this is special”. “People love stories that tell the development of an idea, from beginning to end, and thanks to which they form a relationship not only with others and with places, but also with products”, concludes Danielle Callegari, signature for Italy of the American magazine “Wine Enthusiast”, “and old vineyards represent the oldest “roots” in the history of wine”.