WineInk: The Old Vines Registry

This past weekend during a black-tie event at the Vinexposium gathering in Paris, France, the prestigious V d’Or wine awards were presented to recognize the top business initiatives in the wine and spirits industry worldwide.

One of those awards was bestowed on a wine project called “The Old Vine Registry,” which won the Best Heritage Initiative. Interestingly, the winner has roots that go deep into Aspen’s past. And a The Aspen Times connection.

“The Old Vine Registry” is a project created to collect, organize, and make accessible the world’s most comprehensive database of living historic vineyard sites containing vines that are 35 years of age or older. Originally conceived by iconic wine writer Jancis Robinson and her team over 10 years ago, it was originally simply a list of old vine properties from around the world. But last year, the list was digitized, structured, and redesigned as a crowd-sourced resource for the world wine community.

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San Francisco-based wine blogger Alder Yarrow (more on him in a moment) voluntarily took on the task of updating what was initially a simple spreadsheet to design an easy-to-use, interactive site that currently features information on 3,113 old vine vineyards in 35 countries. Included in the list are vines that are as old as 400 years found in the Maribor region of Slovenia.

The result is still a work in progress (There are upwards of 10,000 vineyards still to be included), but it already has proven to be an award-winning endeavor that will help vintners, educators, and historians have a better understanding of these legacy vines.

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Robinson, an iconic figure in the world of wine, was effusive in her remarks about the project and specifically Yarrow’s contributions: “I’m thrilled that, against extremely stiff competition, all the hard work that Alder Yarrow has put into transforming a messy list on JancisRobinson.com into a beautiful, increasingly valuable standalone website has been recognized.”

She also thanked Jackson Family Wines, who funded the development work on the project.

 

If you were a member of the Aspen High School Class of ’92, you may remember the salutatorian of that August graduating group, one Alder Yarrow. He spent his formative years here in Aspen where, in addition to being a student, first at the Wildwood School and then the Woody Creek Community School, he also tied flies for the legendary Chuck Fothergill while holding jobs at Laurettas (a fondly-remembered Mexican take-out restaurant) and Clarks Market. But his true claim to local roots is that Yarrow is one of those ambitious youths who sold The Aspen Times to readers on the streets of Aspen back in the day. Those are bona fides that would even impress Roger Marolt.

Yarrow matriculated from Aspen to Stanford University and Oxford before a long career in the technology industry as an entrepreneur and company founder. Oh, and that had Aspen origins as well, as he received his first computer here.

“Around 1985, my mother’s boyfriend gave me an Apple II computer,” he told me in an interview for a 2008 WineInk. “It just fit,” he recalled.

Yarrow was captivated by technology, but in college, he developed a passion for wine, as well. That translated into a side hustle before the term was even invented.

In January 2004, he became one of the early adaptors to blogging when he launched vinography.com, his weekly collection of news, notes, opinions, tasting notes, and more about the wine world. Now, 20 years later, it is as fresh every week as the initial postings. I would highly encourage signing up if you love wine. In 2011, he joined the team at JancisRobinson.com as their American correspondent. His organizational skills, technological talents, and love of wine coalesced perfectly with “The Old Vine Registry,” which he jumped into last year.

How does it work? Simply go to the site (oldvineregistry.org), type in a vineyard name, and a profile comes up. I used the Hayne Vineyard in St. Helena in Napa as a reference. By clicking on the listing, I found that the site was planted in 1903, 121 years ago, it is 7.7 acres, planted to Zinfandel, and has been owned by the same family since the 19th century. The vines are head-trained and dry-farmed. Fruit goes to Turley Wine Cellars. Now I know much more than I ever have about this legacy vineyard.

“It’s one thing to know that an old vine exists,” said Yarrow this week from Aspen where he was on an annual family ski trip. “But the cool thing is that in each vineyard listing, there is a button in the middle of the page where you can click and be taken to Winesearcher.com where you can buy the wine. It closes the commercial loop and allows winemakers to sell these wines.”   

So why are old vines even a thing? Well, if you ever have walked a vineyard populated by large, gnarly, twisted vines of a certain age, you may well have felt a pull on your heartstrings and noted the soulful vibes. Old vines have survived, much like people, the perils, and vicissitudes presented by Mother Nature. For a long time. They have given grapes a nurturing platform to grow and thrive each year, producing new vintages of wines that have been enjoyed by countless, happy wine lovers. That is the emotional part of the equation.

But wines that have survived for extended periods are also in genetic balance with the places they exist. While we humans feel that we know best about things like agriculture, farming, etc., there is no question that a vine that has lived for 50-100 years in one small location on earth – going through its annual cycles, responding to the topography and terroir of the land – has acquired some kind of innate knowledge that we can learn from. There are vines in places like the Lodi region of California, the Barossa Valley of Australia, and various regions in South Africa that have been the stars of harvests by generations of winemakers. The constant is the vines. Winemakers come and go.  

And some believe that old vines produce better wines. This is a subjective view, taste is in the palate of the beholder. But the thought goes that as vines age, they become more limited in the amount of grapes and clusters they produce. This, in turn, results in greater concentration in the grapes they do grow. While not proven, I think there is a direct psychological perception that old vines mean more pedigreed and complex wines. True or not, it has an effect and is often used in marketing wines.

Finally, as Tamlyn  Currin, one of the founders of “The Old Vines Registry,” wrote, “Old vines are linked to social sustainability in terms of retaining, preserving, celebrating, recognizing, respecting and dignifying tradition, old wisdom, handed-down knowledge, experience and the people who are an integral part of that.”

Could not have said it better myself.