Granted it was a small sample, but I visited three Chilean wineries in 2013. One was all ungrafted vines. The other two were all grafted.
Steve and David - Thanks for the qualifications re Chile.
Alex - There are some extremely old, true pre-phylloxera vines in Chile. I tasted some wines from 300-year-old plants at a Dressner tasting a few years ago.
I was just speaking to Melanie Tarlant last night as she was in town. Looking the domaine up afterward, they apparently (or at least they believe they) have the only Chardonnay planted on its own rootstock in sandy soil in Champagne. The La Vigne d’Antan bottling. But my understanding is this is not a pre-phylloxera vineyard. Maybe someone knows definitively.
To answer this question with any accuracy you would need to plant two vineyards on sandy soil…one on rootstock and the other ungrafted.Maybe you would plant alternate rows and then harvest etc etc…
Usually the question about pre phylloxera was posed about Bordeaux. Those wines are over 130 years old and not too common although they do appear at auction from time to time.
I hear Rudy is making something for auction right now…amazing what a guy can do with banana peels
I thought the bollinger vielles vignes francaise was own-rooted pre-phylox.
But not Chardonnay…
But it’s only available in cell block C, not out here!
As far as what earlier Bordeaux was like, based on descriptions and records of technique, the grapes were picked earlier, they were handled more roughly, the wine making wasn’t that clean, and they were often blended with wine from other regions or vineyards. So they were most likely lighter in color, hence “claret”, as well as funkier, maybe with VA and brett, and tannic and acidic. Using Malbec and Carmenere would have made them more green as well. But it all depends on when you start b/c “earlier” as in the Middle Ages is way different from “earlier” as in post WW1.
A lot of wine around the world is different because of phylloxera - the mix in Bordeaux was mirrored in other places where grapes were replaced with higher-yielding varieties.
No reason to imagine that wine from non-grafted vines is inherently better than grafted, although if you’re talking about matching a grape to a place, that’s the way to do it because with grafts, you can match the rootstock to soil that might not be favorable for the scion. So one might question whether the grapes that have come to be identified with certain regions would be the same if they were not grafted. I don’t know, but it’s something to consider.
If I’m not mistaken, the oldest producing vines in the world would be in Australia, so that’s where I’d look for pre-phylloxera. There were a bunch in Argentina- they claimed that by flooding the vineyards, they drowned out the bugs, but I think they’re more likely just lucky so far. Same in parts of Spain - they claim that it’s because of the soils, etc., but that’s not actually a certainty.
Here’s a Bloomberg article about the Lanternfly. Sounds like the Velociraptor equivalent of the insect world.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-02/america-isn-t-ready-for-the-lanternfly-invasion
or at Bern’s …
At least this was the case a few years ago. Maybe they’ve all been drunk by now.
Own-rooted, yes, but definitely not pre-phylloxera. The vineyard grows every year as the fruiting canes in the edges are pushed down to the earth to become new, separate vine trunks next year. Most of the vines are relatively young there.
My experience, although limited ,has been very positive for these wines. While young, the 2009 Provignage from Domaine de la Charmoise was nice, but not that complex and a bit fat. Tried again at the end of last year, it was brilliant, with a cool, brooding minerality. Imagine with another 5-10 years, that this would be incredible. Same price as a top Bourgonne Blanc, this is a steal.
While the Vineyard for the Provignage is meant to be the oldest in France (180 year old vines) , I think the oldest in Europe is used to make Do Ferreiro Albariño Rías Baixas Cappa Vallas, with the vines clocking in at something like 200 years old. I only have the '15 in the cellar, but there is a minerality and coolness to the wine that suggests it needs time in the cellar. Great stuff and I will check again in 2025.
I have had some of the old cuvee reds from Etna, and again they are very complex. Recommended, but I’m not a red drinker any more, so I’m not a buyer.
Overall, because these wines come from unfashionable areas, I think they offer incredible QPR. The soils these vineyards lie on may not always be the best - otherwise they would have been gobbled up - but the old vines and the low yields that are a result of the age, give a very complex wine. Buy as much as you can while you can - eventually these will become highly collectible
I’m not sure that’s correct for the Classified Growths in of the Left Bank. Yes, there was carmenere that was not replanted but it was probably not substantial at the top estates. Cabernet Sauvignon was already well-established by that time.
Most estates did not keep track of varieties at the time. It was not considered important. They were aware of yields, vine densities, diseases, harvest dates and prices.