It’s no longer about geography, and perhaps it never was. The wines made in southern Victoria during the late nineteenth century were anything but New World wines. I know, since I’ve tasted a few. Similarly, there are wines being made in Europe today with technology that far outstrips what we typically see in Australia and the results can taste as if they might have been made here.
Here are some potentially surprising facts. Australia has the oldest producing cabernet sauvignon vines in the world, being the Barossa vineyard known as Penfolds Block 42. Australia boasts many shiraz vineyards whose vines date back more than 150 years, including the oldest single shiraz vineyard wine in the world: Langmeil’s The Freedom, which was planted in 1847. Australia is the world’s oldest continent, with the world’s oldest soils for grape growing. Over the last 200 years, Australian grape growers and winemakers have sought to explore different regions and sites, matching them with the world’s most important varieties.
In other words, Australia has in abundance precisely the same set of empiricals as many of the most famous vineyards in wine’s Old World, with the additional bonus of having older vines to express the uniqueness of its many great vineyard sites. Many of the best Australian wines are the way they are because of the same reasons that makes many Old World wines great.
History, on its own is not enough, since there is nothing attractive about a history of bad wine. More important, is winemaking attitude, or philosophy.
During the 1990s and in the early years of this century the success of Australian and other New World wines in many export markets has caused winemakers in a number of Old World countries to re-evaluate their entire approach. It is now commonplace for wines to be made in France, Spain and Italy using techniques and equipment that have been developed in the New World, creating Old World wines of more freshness, fruit and vitality, with something of New World character.
Similarly, over recent years there’s been a reciprocal exchange, since many New World makers have adopted 100% Old World attitudes towards the growing and making of their wines. They follow virtually identical procedures, and frequently spend time learning Old World techniques in wineries and vineyards. While they are not trying to replicate Old World styles, they are motivated by their belief that these time-honed techniques will best reflect the terroir and character of their own vineyards, wherever they may be.
The outcome is frequently wine of more restraint, integration, subtlety and savoury quality. Some of these wines can closely resemble their Old World counterparts; others are nowhere near. The differences between site, climate, soil and topography ultimately show through. But the differences between the taste of Old and New World wines is indeed blurring. These days it’s fun to share wines which seem to break the traditional rules.
Winemakers now choose between different entirely winemaking philosophies, or a combination of the two. Their wines continue to reflect their vineyards, their varieties, the techniques deployed and one other important factor: the mindset, ambitions and abilities of their growers and makers.
The differences between wine’s Worlds Old and New is really nothing more than a state of mind. All of which makes it unendingly interesting…
