Questions About Spanish Wines

[Michael_S_Monie]

I have at least a half dozen Spanish wines that were acquired over last year at a per bottle price of under $20. According to the back labels, all of the grapes were sourced from vines 50 years or older. Question 1: Since the older vines become the less productive they are, why don’t they replant? Question 2: Since the major criticism of many of these wines is that they are over-oaked, fruit bombs, could world class, traditionally made, long lived wines be made from the fruit of these very old vines? Question 3: Why isn’t something more economically viable being done with grapes from low producing, high quality vines? Thanks.

[Brian_Gilp]

Semi-educated guess answers

1. Cost. Replanting is not cheap. Vine cost plus labor and could also have trellis changes/cost although less likely in Spain. Then on top of the initial cost there is the loss of productivity for the years it takes for the new vines to get an age where they can produce wine. This can be three years or more. That is a lot of investment/lost revenue to endure for hopefully payback in 10 years and profit after that.
2. No clue. Many variables involved here besides just vine age.
3. Not sure I understand the question. If you are asking why not try to up quality to raise price, its probably related to the relatively low prices Spanish wines fetch on the world market. So if one of the wines you bought for less than $20 raised quality and also its price to $30 would it still be able to compete against its $20 competition or would it actually lose revenue due to decreased sales?

[M_A_T_T_H_A_R_T_L_E_Y]

@Michael S. Monie

I have at least a half dozen Spanish wines that were acquired over last year at a per bottle price of under $20. According to the back labels, all of the grapes were sourced from vines 50 years or older. Question 1: Since the older vines become the less productive they are, why don’t they replant? Question 2: Since the major criticism of many of these wines is that they are over-oaked, fruit bombs, could world class, traditionally made, long lived wines be made from the fruit of these very old vines? Question 3: Why isn’t something more economically viable being done with grapes from low producing, high quality vines? Thanks.

1: Older vines produce lower yields but theoretically higher quality fruit. Spain has more acreage devoted to vines than any other country in the world so if your old vines are producing the yields you need, why rip them up?

2: It’s not a question of “could” - there are extremely high quality, traditionally made long lived wines being made from old vines in Spain.

3: Not sure I understand the question.

[Larry_P]

Like others have said to your vine-age question, older vines can produce higher quality fruit, and have deeper running roots which allow things like dry farming even in arid conditions. Eventually vines die or stop producing, so a well-maintained vineyard will be periodically replanting some percentage of the vines, but wants to keep the average vine age high, and depending on the situation, might sell off the grapes from younger vines to avoid lowering the quality of the wine. Not sure if that applies to any sub-$20 from Spain though.

Regarding your other questions, if wineries are lucky, they make the wines they want to make. Otherwise, they make wines they believe are marketable. Even if these vines can make a wine which we’d perceive as very high quality (and they probably can) remember that fruity and oaky play well in the market.

[Michael_S_Monie]

@Michael S. Monie

I have at least a half dozen Spanish wines that were acquired over last year at a per bottle price of under $20. According to the back labels, all of the grapes were sourced from vines 50 years or older. Question 1: Since the older vines become the less productive they are, why don’t they replant? Question 2: Since the major criticism of many of these wines is that they are over-oaked, fruit bombs, could world class, traditionally made, long lived wines be made from the fruit of these very old vines? Question 3: Why isn’t something more economically viable being done with grapes from low producing, high quality vines? Thanks.

1. The premise of question 1 is if you are going to sell wines at the under $20 price point, why would superior quality fruit be a priority, when younger vines would supply more volume.

2. The premise of question 2 is if you have high quality fruit that is capable of making great wines, why make wines that sell for under $20 unless you think that there isn’t a market for superior, higher priced wines.

3. The premise for question 3 is why make and sell $20 wines if you have the capability of making and selling wines considerably more expensive.