I tend to drink mostly pinot noir, but like the occasional cab-based wine. I generally find old vines pinot noir to have a certain magic – people describe it as sappiness – that I love. So I’ve got a few questions:
What are the oldest cab vines in California? JJ Cohn?
What wines are made from JJ Cohn’s old vines, other than Scarecrow? Any made exclusive from old vines?
Any other old vines cabs out there? Bdx? Argentina?
What are the characteristics peculiar to old vines cab? Does it have that sappiness? More concentrated?
I would guess that a definition of old vines for cabernet should be agreed upon first. I doubt that there are very many, if any at all, that are planted and are any where near as old as some of the zinfandel an petite sirah vines in California.
Guessing here:
Ridge Montebello
Montelena Estate
Beringer Home Vineyard
I’m not really sure what a good definition would be – I suppose a rule of thumb could be over 50 years here. I’ve heard JJ Cohn has some of the oldest, going back to the mid 1940s.
Anyone looking for old cabernet vines would necessarily start with older wineries, and Mt. Eden (formerly Martin Ray), Beaulieu (BV1 and 2), Inglenook (now Rubicon Estate) and Dominus (Napanook) are where I’d start. The only question would be when the vineyards were replanted last.
The ancient vines at Haut-Bailly are about 15% of its vineyard area and (unfortunately*) are blended in with the rest. If you google “haut-bailly pre-phylloxera” it will come up with a bunch of articles about them.
maybe not so unfortunately since the resulting wine is always a beauty.
Whe I was visiting Jacob Terrell up at the Monte Rosso vineyard, he showed me a block of head pruned cab vines that he said were planted around 1880 and was under the impression that they were the oldest cab vines in the state.
2000 was the last vintage for the old Martin Ray vines.
Cooper Garrod’s ‘George’s Vineyard’ and Kathryn Kennedy’s vineyard were both planted from vine material from the Martin Ray/Mount Eden Vineyard in 1973-74. Kennedy’s came by way of David Bruce.
Correct as far as I know. The winery dates from 1883 but according to Sullivan the vines were replanted between 1895 and 1905. There’s less than an acre remaining, divided in two separate blocks.
Penfolds Kalimna Block 42 is generally considered the oldest planting of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Barossa Valley, some say in the world. The Kalimna vineyard was planted in the 1880’s.
As far as I know the oldest vines at Ridge were planted in the 1950s.
The Peter Martin Ray vineyard dates back to the 1960s, but Mount Eden replanted their cab in the late 1990s.
(note to self: next time read whole thread before replying)
True enough, but an older winery would stand a much greater chance of having older vines in its estate vineyards than . . . say . . . one that was started in 2001. That’s why I’d be looking at the older, pioneer wineries first. Phylloxera obviously enters the equation - though I’m mystified why so many of the old zinfandel and mixed black vineyards (as listed in Mike Dildine’s thread) seem to have escaped the little critters’ ravages.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a bottle of Manso di Velasco. Do we know if anyone is making any cabernet in California with only old vine grapes?
As mentioned earlier, Woodside’s La Questa Cabernet is made exclusively with fruit from Rixford’s 100 year old vines. It is only released in the best years and maybe 3 barrels are made, so good luck finding any.
