Old vines are, on the one hand, less vigorous, so are less likely to over-crop; and on the other, have deeper root systems and larger carbohydrate reserves, so they are more resilient to drought conditions or marginal vintages, and set more consistent albeit smaller crops.
2017, for example was a vintage that favored old vines, all things being equal (which they seldom are), in the Côte de Nuits, because the vintage was characterized by generous yields which didn’t always ripen, despite the sunny August, because—effectively—the vines set more fruit than they had water to ripen.
So much of the texture and structure of white wines is dependent on winemaking choices that it’s harder to isolate what old vines contribute to the final product. And in any case, there are too many other variables - rootstocks, selections, etc. But clearly, they’re in principle desirable.
Sacrilege! They told me that they keep the Chenin because Don’s wife is fond of it. I think they said that Chenin Blanc is a prolific fruit producer and is often used in inexpensive “jug” wine. But then I might be wrong about the latter.
Michael,
True dat, that CheninBlanc is often used in jug whites.
In Calif, there are simply not very many wineries that put much effort into making a quality CB. DryCreekVnyd is probably
the most notable one that does. Their grapes come from the Delta area.
Tom
They carried on making Chenin because Don’s wife is fond of it. But they ripped up the old vines and planted some new vines somewhere less suitable for over-ripening Cabernet.
For me, it’s an uniquely intense minerality as well as a clarity of flavors. I think of old vine Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre, and how the dynamic is night and day most times. Same with Riesling and Gruner
From those few white variety historic vineyards that I’m familiar with (Compagni Portis, Chalone Chenin, Mondavi I Block, Monte Rosso, Jackass Hill Muscat, Alta Vista), I very much agree with Ian’s assessment.
Obviously there are many factors, but to me, among all of the different characteristics that can be used to describe a white wine, it is that tactile sense of minerality that is the key to what makes a white wine special and great…
I am guessing that it’s harder to determine what is the unique character in an old-vine white wine because it’s just the vinified juice, with very little skin contact.
I assume that leaves too much room for the winemaker’s hand to leave an imprint on the finished product.
That is correct. Vines planted by Charles Tamm in 1919 and registered with HVS. Based upon some freakish wines I’ve tasted from the limestone rich Chalone AVA in years past (the Chenin, older Pinots, Chardonnays and Pinot Blanc - not to mention some great Copain Brosseau Syrah’s and Under the Wire sparklers) I continue to think that this is one of the world’s great wine-grape growing regions. Hopefully the new owners (Foley group?) begin to realize the AVA’s potential.
I believe that was under the Carmenet label that was owned by the Chalone Group. A great wine that I enjoyed many bottles of and fun to pour for friends blind. Woodenhead makes a nice Colombard that most likely comes from old vines as who in their right mind would plant Colombard in theses days.
"Muscadelle (also called Sauvignon Vert) is a Nichelini family classic. This white Bordeaux varietal comes from a small vineyard block planted 73 years ago (the Rose Block, named for the 6th Nichelini child, born in 1899.) "
“Winemaker’s Note: These vines were planted by my great-grandfather and a great-uncle in 1946. Today, only 8.2 acres of Muscadelle exist in all of Napa County. It is a pleasure to work with these old, rare vines and I like to highlight their unique varietal characteristic of mineral flavors in combination with the stone fruit flavors often found in the wines grown in the higher altitude of Napa Valley’s Chiles Valley District.”
Trout Gulch - Chardonnay. Planting began in 1977. Though Arnot-Roberts cites 1980. Don’t know if that’s their block, when the first Chard went in or what.
Antle Vyd. and possibly others in the Chalone AVA still have OV Melon de Bourgogne. Don’t know if the oldest vines still exist, which were planted 1919 iirc, with subsequent plantings added in the '60s and '70s.
Le Boeuf Vyd. in the Ben Lomond AVA has 1974 Chard vines.
Peter Martin Ray (SCM) has 1982 Chard vines.
PM Staiger (SCM) has own-rooted Chard planted in the '60s.
Here is a video of Mr Mike Officer doing a round of fieldwork, sampling white grapes from the “Mancini Vineyard” in RRV (Piner-Olivet) for Carlisle Vineyards:
Carlisle Winery & Vineyards Vimeo video: “Grape Sampling at the Mancini Vineyard” (~2015)
While I have found information about the Chalone region’s viticultural history, I have not been able to determine the respective planting dates of individual vineyards. I think that Dick Graff originally established the site now known as the “Antle/Rodnick Vineyard”. I know even less about the “Brousseau Vineyard”.
“…Heritage Vines: We have propagated budwood from our heritage vines to reinvigorate vineyard health and strength, reclaiming much of the varieties originally planted by Richard Graff. Many of these original vines are referred to as ‘suitcase’ clones. As the story goes, the wood was smuggled over from France in a suitcase. To avoid agricultural restrictions, immigration was told the wood was for the making of musical instruments. (Richard graduated from Harvard with a degree in Music.)”
I am guilty of assuming that, when it comes to any vineyard in the Chalone AVA, Mr Graff probably had a hand in it somewhere along the way!
I recently found a downloadable PDF document from 2016 pertaining to the “Antle Vineyard” and its former on-site house/winery (aka Pinnacalitos de Chalone). There is a cool map of the vineyard showing where specific varieties were planted in this file.
from the section focused on the late Bob Antle’s acquisition of the property, it states:
“…Along with his business and his family, Bob was passionate about wine. Bob purchased an existing vineyard near Soledad, CA in 2005. The vineyard was originally planted by Chalone Vineyard owner Dick Graff and includes Viognier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Mourvèdre and Syrah varietal grapes.”
"Well-known third-generation Salinas row crop farmer, Bob Antle, had long been a fan of Chalone Vineyard, so when he decided to get involved in the wine business, it seemed natural he would take a look at one of the vineyards former Chalone founder, Dick Graff, had originally planted. So about nine years ago, Antle purchased a 40-acre property with a vineyard that hadn’t been in production for some time, and set about turning it around.
“…‘Antle’ wines are bottled under the label, Pinnacalitos de Chalone, which means ‘little pinnacles’, in reference to the fact that the vines have a very nice view of those crazy little mountains of rock that got separated from their brethren 300 miles to the south due to tectonic plates crashing into one another. This property, high in the Gabilan Mountains, neighboring the Pinnacles National Monument, is characterized by distinctive limestone and decompressed granite soil…”.
"…A struggling plant will have sweeter fruit, and less foliage for better sunlight penetration.
"Charles Tamm knew this, when in 1919 he was looking for an area similar to his native Burgundy to grow grapes in California, and planted Chalone’s first vines. After Prohibition, Tamm’s Chalone vineyard was revived and the grapes were sold in the 1940s and '50s to Almaden Vineyards and Wente Brothers.
"In 1960, some wine lovers turned an old chicken coop into a winery on the property; Rodney Strong left a dancing career and joined the blossoming Chalone crew, selling his first batches of bulk wine to tourists in Marin County.
"Richard Graff, a restless banker with a side interest in winemaking, got a weekend job at Chalone through his father, an early investor of Strong’s.
“Within a year, in 1965, Graff bought the vineyard and turned the Chalone name into a sensation, importing French oak barrels and becoming one of the first to introduce Burgundian winemaking techniques to California…”.
"…While Charles Tamm is credited with planting vines in the area to the west of the Chalone estate, William Silvear planted the first vines that produced wine at Chalone.
"Silvear was part of a group of partners who bought the ranch from the Dyers in 1921. They paid $2,500 in total. Eventually, Silvear became the sole owner. According to former Chalone co-owner Phil Woodward, and author of Chalone: A Journey on the Wine Frontier, Silvear’s most significant accomplishment was that he ‘recognized the benchland’s rare soil.’ And that he was inspired by his neighbor, Mr. Tamm, to plant grapes and to make fine wine.
"…The modern winemaking era that we think of when we think of wine from Chalone begins in the 1960s. On July 11, 1961, Chalone Inc. was established as a corporation with three directors - physician Edward Liska, stockbroker John Sigman, and John E. Sullivan, Sigman’s lawyer. Sigman and Liska hired winemaker Philip Togni, who made the first three vintages of Chalone wines.
“The year before Chalone Inc. was established, the first harvest got underway in 1960 ‘under numbingly difficult conditions,’ recalls Woodward. Togni worked with Will Silvear’s ‘decades-old Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, and Chenin Blanc vineyards,’ according to Woodward…”.
Were the older Chenin Blanc, Pinot Blanc, and Viognier plantings in Chalone AVA misidentified in any of the above articles?
I would think it more likely that old-vine white cultivars (other than Chardonnay) grown in the region would be Palomino, Muscadet, Muscadelle, Chasselas, or something similar…?
*** EDIT ***
According to a website focused on the history of Melon de Bourgogne identity issues, Chalone’s plantings are Pinot Blanc. In fact, considerable effort was expended to make it so.
"…In an interview many years ago, Tom Selfridge, who was then president of Beaulieu Vineyards, said that the grape BV called Pinot Blanc was also known to the winery for many years as Melon de Bourgogne and was used in BV’s Chablis. It was pulled out of the vineyard in the early 1960s because of a virus disease, and some of the cuttings were sent to the University of California at Davis to be placed in their virus eradication program. That was when the Pinot Blanc name was mistakenly attached to what was really Melon. Later, BV thought it would be interesting to try the variety again and put the now virus-free U.C. cuttings back in the original vineyard (BV #2). It was from these grapes that the 1982 and 1983 BV Melons were made.
"…Chalone Vineyard is one winery in particular that would be adversely affected by BATF’s regulations, if enforced, since it has long been California’s star producer of Pinot Blanc, with vineyard plantings of the variety going back to 1946. It has been assumed all along that old-vine Pinot Blanc in Chalone’s barren, windswept, limestone soils near the Pinnacles National Monument in Monterey County was the real thing - Pinot Blanc vrai or true Pinot Blanc. Selfridge explained in a telephone interview last October that after the controversy began to unfold in Washington, Chalone brought in a plant pathologist from U.C. Davis to certify the identity of these old vines, and the expert concluded they are, indeed, the real thing [Pinot Blanc].
“Another Chalone vineyard, planted in 1972, is without doubt Melon, which was obtained from the Foundation Plant Material Service. Subsequently, Chalone planted another 12 acres of Pinot Blanc, using cuttings from the mother vineyard planted in 1946. Eventually, all of the Melon vines will be budded over to true Pinot Blanc…”.
