Great whites: with vines it's questions of time

Great whites: burgundy 2015: Jancis Robinson in the Financial Times

" It is generally agreed that, although the first few harvests may be particularly successful while crop levels are relatively low, the quality of the wine they produce increases as vines age. This may be partly because yields decline, so what remains is more concentrated, but older vines’ well-established root systems are also much better at withstanding the increasing problem of drought (young vines suffered water stress in Burgundy in 2015 — especially in Saint-Aubin). 

Every vigneron likes to boast how old their vines are, and many a label all over the world carries the (unregulated) claim of Old Vines, Vieilles Vignes, Viñas Viejas, Vinhas Velhas or Alte Reben. But with really old vines, yields can fall to seriously uneconomic levels, and the vines themselves are sometimes so fragile that they are easily susceptible to fatal damage in the vineyard. Yet, replanting is a long and expensive process.

Ideally the vineyard is left fallow for a few years and then, once replanted, it will be at least 10 or 12 years before the vines are mature enough to produce even half-decent wine."



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