How does the age of the vines influence the wines?

The age of the vines affects their adaptability to the environment, the quality of the grapes they produce and the wines made from them

A wine made with grapes from long-lived vines. Doesn’t it sound good? Surely, on some occasions, you have read or heard that one of the virtues of wine is that it is made from the raw material of vines with many years of life. But… does the age of the vines influence the wines, or is it just a marketing gimmick?

As we have told you on other occasions, many analogies can be drawn between vines and people. For example, the flowering of the vine is similar to our adolescence. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the age of the vines has an extraordinarily positive influence on the wines made from their grapes. After all, the more mature we humans become, the more knowledge and experience we accumulate, hence the wiser we become, and the more our opinions are taken into account.

Likewise, during their first years of life, vines are not productive; winegrowers limit themselves to taking care of them and ensuring that they grow healthy and strong so that, later on, they can produce superb harvests. This behavior is similar to that of people. Children are raised and educated with love, respect, and effort to become independent and valuable adults in society.

Below, we will outline some keys to explain why the age of the vines is so important in producing complex wines with personality.

Three reasons why the age of the vines is important

The age of the vines directly affects their inner workings. Their age affects the Mineral collection, how sap flows, and their adaptation to the environment.

Perfectly acclimatized plants

The most obvious benefit of the fact that the age of the vines in a vineyard is high is that this implies that the plants are perfectly acclimatized to the weather and climatic conditions of the site, to the characteristics of the soil and to the situation of the plot in which they are located (altitude, proximity to the sea…).

What does this mean? Older vines respond better to the climatic fluctuations that occur between one year and the next so that they are less affected by annual variations. Thus, old vines are more resilient to increased humidity or lower-than-usual temperatures.

As a result, harvests are more stable and do not fluctuate excessively in quantity and quality depending on the weather.

Deeper roots and larger trunks

Like any tree plant, the roots become deeper as the years pass. This means that the age of the vines influences the strength and extension of their roots and the formation of a solid root system that allows the plants to collect more minerals, improve access to water, and better cope with complex situations such as droughts.

Similarly, the age of the vines is also linked to the characteristics of their trunk. The longer they live, the greater their thickness and capacity to have reserves of nutrients previously collected by the roots.

Lower production, excellent quality

The age of the vines has a decisive influence on vineyard production. Plots with long-lived vines produce fewer grapes per year, but the grapes are of excellent quality. Why is this phenomenon? The pruning of the vines leaves its mark on them, hindering the circulation of the sap.

Thus, although many decades-old vines do not produce an enormous quantity of grapes, they give birth to exquisite grapes, since the reduced sap circulation causes the grapes to have a higher concentration of sugars and aromas. If we add to this an optimal ripening process, the result will be an excellent harvest in terms of quality and health.

Wines from old vines are more complex

Precisely, the fact that grapes from old vines are of the highest quality means that the wines made from them are also of the highest quality. Hence, we say that the vines’ age influences the wines’ characteristics.

What are the wines made from the harvest of vines that are several decades old? In general, they stand out for having a lot of body, fantastic structure, and complexity, which makes them very special.

In addition, the concentration of sugars and aromas in grapes produced from vines for many years means that the wines made using them are deeply aromatic, intense, deep, and long-lived.

Given all these virtues that the age of the vines transmits to the wines… why don’t all winegrowers bet on having vines that have lived many summers?

• Caring for the vines so they become old is a complex task.
• The cost of wine production is higher because the vines produce a smaller quantity of grapes, and it is necessary to invest in their care.

How to make vines grow old, healthy, and strong

Healthy living, taking care of our diet, resting the necessary hours, applying creams to protect our skin… People only age well when we take care of ourselves. Something similar happens with grapevines. These fascinating plants need growers to carry out continuous work to facilitate their adaptation to the environment, protect them against diseases, and modulate how they develop.

Thus, when we talk about the age of vines, we cannot leave aside the capital importance that pruning plays in extending the life of these plants. Thanks to pruning work, viticulture teams can combat any health problems affecting the trunk, cut back wood over two years old, renew parts of the vine, remove some shoots and limit the growth of others.

It is important to remember that if a vine grows uncontrolled, it weakens year after year, and this has repercussions on the harvest it produces and its ability to survive.

Thus, it is important not only to prune the vines to obtain the best possible harvests but also to avoid premature aging of the plant and to extend its life.

The age of the vines can be creased only by using delicate pruning work adapted to each plant’s characteristics and needs.

Vines with half a century of life

What we have just described shows us that the age of the vines is directly related to effort, will and human talent. Winegrowing operations with extraordinarily long-lived vines have in common the commitment of their owners to take care of the vines and produce wines of exceptional quality.

The age of the vines is even more important in wineries such as Pazo Baión, where only single-vineyard wines are produced. That is to say, elaborations created solely and exclusively with the grapes provided by the property’s vineyards.

Therefore, the fact that the age of Pazo Baión’s vines is around 50 years on average is a collective success of the professionals who are part of this project and the result of an unequivocal commitment to making gourmet Rías Baixas wines in which every aspect is taken care of, from the winter pruning of the vines to the bottling.

Thanks to the fact that Pazo Baión’s vines are around half a century old, our Albariños stand out for their intensity, body, structure and development in the mouth.

The veteran vines of the property offer the winemakers of our winery the best raw material to produce expressive, mature wines with an overflowing personality.

So, no, highlighting the age of the vines is not a mere commercial argument; this quality of the vineyards is transmitted to the wines.