Old World wine

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Old World wines refers to wines that come from regions with a long documented history of wine production

Chile and vice versa.[1]

"Old World" can also mean a wine style made for centuries by small winemakers intended to be consumed as a daily beverage to accompany a meal. These food and wine "pairings," so famous today (e.g. Chianti and Italian food) developed over generations by trial and error. The small village winemaker succeeded or failed on his wine's reputation as an acceptable "table" wine, be it highly expensive or budget priced.

By comparison, "New World" wines, while also being food friendly, are created to meet the tastes of contemporary wine drinkers. Contemporary wine drinkers, especially those in the large U.S. market, consume wine as a stand-alone beverage as much as a beverage to accompany a meal. Thus, the immediate "taste" is the overwhelming criteria by which a new-world wine is judged by the contemporary wine consumer.

Influences

In Old World winemaking, the terroir of a region is of paramount importance with wines from a region, such as Montrachet (pictured), being labeled with the region's name rather than the grape variety (such as Chardonnay).
See also: terroir

The two most guiding influences of Old World style winemaking are that of

Denominación de Origen (DO) and Portuguese Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC) laws.[2]

Terroir is often used to describe the aspects of a wine region such as soil, climate and topography that are often out of the winemaker's control.[3] They are the unique attributes that, theoretically, make a Sangiovese based wine from Chianti taste different from a Sangiovese-based wine made anywhere else in the world even if exactly the same winemaking techniques are used. While wines in the New World are often labeled based on the varietal (such as Chardonnay or Tempranillo), wines in the Old World are generally labeled based on the region or place that they come from (such as Montrachet or Ribera del Duero). This is because Old World winemakers believe that the unique terroir-driven characteristics of where a wine comes from plays a more distinct role in shaping the resulting wine than the grape variety itself.[2]

Viticulture

Viticulture in most of the Old World wine regions dates back to several hundred or even thousands of years with the

harvesting being done manually. In New World wine regions like Australia, which was quick to adopt mechanical techniques, vines were often planted apart 3.7 metres (12 ft) by 2.5 metres (8 ft). While spacing between vine rows has shrunk in many Old World wine regions began adopting mechanical techniques in the late 20th century, some regions are still characterized by the high density of vines in their vineyards.[4]

Winemaking

In Old World wine making, the role of the winemaker is minimized compared to New World wine making.

Old World winemaking is often terroir driven with emphasis being placed on how well the wine communicates the sense of place where it originated. For example, a winemaker making a

fermentation process as a part of the terroir while New World winemakers tend to favor cultured yeast strains.[4]

Other techniques associated with Old World winemakers include higher fermentation temperatures and a period of extended

tannic and austere wines with more layers of complexity that require longer periods of bottle aging in order to mature. In contrast, the technique of transferring the must into oak barrels during fermentation and inducing malolactic fermentation early is more commonly associated with New World wine regions and wines that are softer and mature earlier.[4]

Regions

Eurasian wine regions with a long history of viticulture are typically classified as "Old World".[5] These include:

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-19-860990-6
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-19-860990-6
  3. PMID 25251495
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-19-860990-6
  5. ^ Sip Sherwin Lao "Old World vs. New World wines", Manila Standard Today, October 9th 2007
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