Are Old Vine Wines Really Better? Separating Fact from Fiction

What does "Old Vine" on a wine label really promise? Is “Old Vine Zinfandel” truly better, or is it just marketing? In this wine stories episode of Everyday Sommelier, host Kristi Mayfield uncorks the truth about old vine wine, decoding industry buzzwords and cutting through the confusion surrounding one of wine’s most romantic—yet undefined—labels.

Explore why “Old Vine” isn’t a globally or legally defined term, and how this creates frustration for everyday wine lovers, like you, just trying to sip smarter. Kristi reveals the real impact of vine age on wine quality, aroma, and price, and explains how different wine regions—from California to Spain and Australia—are starting to regulate the term to protect heritage vineyards.

Learn how “Old Vine” wines are farmed, the dangers they face, and why you may be paying more for a label rather than superior flavor. You'll gain expert strategies and sommelier tips for decoding everyday wine labels, understanding heritage, and making confident wine choices in a world full of misleading terminology.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER: 

• The truth about "Old Vine"—why it’s often just a marketing term and not a guarantee of quality. 
• How vine age really affects wine texture, concentration, and style (and when it doesn’t). 
• Proven tips for reading “Old Vine” labels and finding real heritage wines, not hype. 
• What wine regions around the world are doing to protect and define old vine vineyards.

Episode Timestamps: 

00:04:00 - Why “Old Vine” Means Nothing Without Context
00:06:08 - How Old Vines Can Impact Wine Texture and Flavor
00:08:21 - Why Many Old Vineyards Get Replanted—And The Risk to Quality
00:12:58 - Regions Fighting Back: How Wine Laws Are Changing for Old Vines
00:14:19 - Price vs. Age: Don’t Get Fooled by Expensive Old Vine Labels

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Transcript

Kristi Mayfield (00:00)
You've probably seen it on the label, Old Vine Zempfendel or Vieilles Vines or Venus Viejas and thought this must be a great wine. It must be better, right? Well, not so fast. Old Vine is one of the world's most romantic wine terms, but it's also one of the most undefined. It sounds prestigious.

But here's the truth, there is no globally recognized legitimate legal definition for what old really means when it comes to grapevines. In today's episode, we are going to pull back the curtain on this vineyard buzzword and find out what old vine really does tell you, what it does not, and how it can impact the flavor, price, and even farming decisions of the wines you love.

And because you're paying extra for that old vine promise, you should know exactly what you are getting.

I still remember my first old vine wine moment. It was a California Zinfandel. The label said old vine. And I remember thinking, I love antiques, I love vintage, so this old vine wine is going to be delicious. And it was, but it also made me wonder what old vine really meant. How old were the vines that

created the grapes that went into that juice? Were they 20 years old, 50, 100, or did it really even matter? So that question sent me down a rabbit hole to research the history behind the terminology, how this can impact the flavor of the wines you love, and why some of the world's biggest winemakers, but also some of the world's most revered vineyards,

are quite literally producing wine out of living history. So let's unpack this together. Now, going back to the question, does old vine actually have a defined meaning? And as I mentioned, the term does not. There is no definition. And in a world of wines, there are numerous highly regulated terminology.

Traditional method sparkling wine means it must follow a specific process to be called traditional or method champenoise or one of those terms. Many Spanish wines have terminology like Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva, and these terms can only be used if specific aging requirements are met. In Germany, the term

Auslese on a bottle of Riesling can only denote wines that are made with grapes that have achieved a specified level of ripeness at harvest. There are definitions, formal requirements that give validity to those terms. But with all of these highly regulated global wine terms, it can be easy for you to assume any and all similar terminology that you see on a wine label

must indicate certain measures of quality or certain requirements have actually been met. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. And it can lead you down a path of frustration or it can make you feel as though you're being deceived. The term old vine is one such term and the lack of a formal global definition creates frustration.

Old can be relative. In the US, our winemaking industry really kicked off in the 70s, So old vine, maybe up to 50 years, but in places like Europe or Australia, where and centuries older than what we see in the US,

the bottom line is for you as a listener, old vine doesn't necessarily always equal It can be a marketing term without any real context. So why do winemakers use the term so freely and so often?

First of all, old vine evokes elements of high craftsmanship, traditions, or even rarity or scarcity. It's an easy appeal to put old vine on the label. And some winemakers take that element to extremes and even use terms like ancient vines to evoke an even more elite or elusive status.

Now to me, ancient means centuries, not just decades. Sometimes there are authentic reasons for winemakers to use the term old vines. The grapes come from longstanding heritage. The vineyards have been there for years. They do have some age on them and they are being tended to create beautiful low yield grapes.

that translate into highly complex and coveted wines. But in general, is it possible to compare a $20 bottle of wine that states old vine that you can pick up at your local supermarket against a $100 or more single vine designated wine that comes from vines that are 90 or 100 years old?

the emotions that can leave you with as a consumer is deception because it's impossible for you to know without immense research which one is which. Now, I want to get into the fact that older vines do actually contribute some really cool elements to wine. First of all, let's talk about the structure of wine and more importantly, the flavor.

Old vines that have been growing for decades or more have extraordinarily deep roots. They can withstand even the toughest droughts and grape vines are an anomaly in the world of plants. The harder they have to work to survive, the better the quality of fruit they produce. As vines age,

they do have a reduction in yield or the amount of grapes that they can produce each year. Now this may sound like a negative, but what it means is that all of the concentration, all of the focus, all of the nutrients and ripening focus on that vine goes to fewer great bunches leading to more concentrated wines with depth and complexity and balance. So

lower yields can be a positive, even though it may sound contradictory. Old vines can create wines that truly do have more texture and depth than being super bright and fruit forward. So if these old vines make great wines, why don't all old

decades if not centuries. Why would farmers want to remove them?

One of the elements destroy vineyard immediately, if not sooner, disease and pest infestations. And back in the 1800s and still today, this louse, this nasty little nearly destroyed vineyards globally. The European wine industry was decimated because of

the phylloxera outbreak. And many of those vineyards had to be completely pulled out and replanted. Now they're healthy today, but phylloxera still exists. Old vines to farm. They take more maintenance. They can be more disease prone and they can be more susceptible to things like hail and frost.

that can wipe out their entire yield in a flash. The other element is human nature and the value of the land that those old vines grow on. Land value can mean one of two things. It could be more profitable for the farmer to tear out those grapevines altogether and put in a completely different crop. Or because of the lower yield of the vines in that vineyard, the

farmer may want to tear those out and put in higher yielding newer grapevines. And sadly, many vineyards that did have these beautiful old vines that were growing unique, rare, or less ripped out those vines and then replanted with more common high volume varietals that do demand.

higher prices on the market. So they sacrifice the quality and the rarity of the old vines for profit. However, with the right strategy, with some time and patience, many farmers are now proving that you can resuscitate these old vines with proper pruning, soil maintenance, transitioning away from heavy chemicals to more sustainable types of farming. And

transform the yields to two to three times higher where they started and bringing those vineyards back to life, bringing them back to profitability. So it's not as though farmers simply want to old vines or the heritages of these vineyards. Sometimes the passion simply does not allow them to pay the bills.

on the flip side of that, Winemakers have to adjust their winemaking strategies to accommodate the grapes that are coming off of these beautiful old vines. They take a gentler handling, much less intervention, so very minimal intervention, and then daily, if not weekly, canopy management schemes to protect the vines.

when they pull the grapes off at harvest, many times those grapes get fermented in whole clusters. And the oak levels on the wines need to be much less, either neutral oak or a very small percentage of new oak in order to let that complex and highly beautiful

flavor and aroma profile of those old vine grapes shine through. Each block, when you're talking about vineyard that has 50 year old vines, 70 year old vines, and a hundred year old vines, they are all going to produce completely different styles of grapes, even if they're, if they're planted with the same varietal. So knowing these things, winemakers can take each

block each one of those parts of the vineyard and handle differently give those grapes the respect that they so deserve. So if these old vines don't necessarily guarantee greatness because you do not know if that old vine designation means five-year-old vines, 20-year-old vines, or truly old vines that are 50, 75, or 100 years old, how

can you tell what the meaning of that term on a wine label actually means? It's about context from the region, the producer, and the authenticity of that label. So here's how you can make sense of old vine labels the next time you are shopping your local wine shop and browsing the wine aisle. Check the source.

There are wine regions designating regulations around using the term old vines. These often and producers that have been around for years. They recognize that terms like old vines are doing nothing more than creating confusion and frustration.

So regions like Rioja in Spain implemented in 2019 that to designate a wine as old vine, it requires those vines be traced back at least 35 years. And the intention is for this region to modify that regulation in the next few years to be 50 year old vines or older. In Greece, Santorini is also

requiring a minimum of 40 years of un-grafted vines. So the same exact vines have to be in the ground for 40 or more years in order to have their designations. Barasso Valley in Australia, South Africa, Lodi in California are having campaigns around old vines. Lodi, California, for example, has launched the Save the Old campaign.

which is focused on protecting vines that are 50, 75, 100 years old or more from being pulled out and replanted with high volume grapes. And in Chile, the vino program in the Maule Valley allows producers to from the Carignan vine if they are 30 years old or more. So many regions are recognizing

challenges that you have as a consumer around this misleading term, but if you buy from these regions, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that the bottle you're purchasing truly does have a mark of age and time. Secondly, don't assume that a higher price truly means age. Some of the best old vine wines aren't.

super expensive. They are mid-priced and some of the lower priced wines are actually priced five to ten dollars more than they would be if they did not use the misleading term old vine on the label. So price does not equate to age and it definitely does not have a old vine equals quality link. Taste wines for the texture.

Taste them for the flavors you desire. Taste them for depth, balance, and this subtle, quieter style of wine than the big, bold, fruit-forward wines you often see with younger vines. Taste for these, not for the buzzword of old vines. I want to thank you for joining me on this deep dive into the term

old vines. And if you loved this episode and now can truly dissect the term old vines on any bottle of wine, please do me the honor of sharing it with your friends who can geek out over wine right alongside of you and who love vineyard stories, discovering new varietals, or have simply bought a bottle of wine because it said old vine. And remember that wine knowledge

isn't about memorizing terms. It's about understanding what's in your glass. And I'd love for you to continue your wine journey with me by joining my insider list at www.wine-wise.com. And wise is spelled W-I-Z-E. Just drop us your email and we'll do all the rest. In our next episode, we are diving deep

into sparkling wine made the traditional way to help you understand its history, its traditions, and why it can cost so much more than the sparkling bottle sitting right next to it on the shelf. And until then, grab your favorite glass while you learn wine your way.