Good Morning!

I received an email last week asking about what the difference is between Old World wines and New World wines and I wanted to take a few minutes and address this in a simple matter. The reason I want to keep this answer simple is years ago, I ask a winemaker what was the difference he launched into the longest answer and he really lost me a minute or two into his sermon.

I like to keep things simple so I understand it. I am not that complicated and though I am bright (some may disagree), I do not always need a full break down of all the details. I remember a friend telling me when his kid, who was age 6-7 ask where babies came from, he told the little guy EVERYTHING. I am sure the kid was traumatized and did not understand one bit of the birds and the bees, he just knew he would some day be naked with a woman and that was freaky.

Anyway, back to the Old World vs. New World wine…What “Old World” describes are wines from Europe or produced in the European style and “New World” means wines produced outside of Europe or according to modern winemaking styles.

Winemaking started in Europe and has a history of 1000’s of years. It’s the motherland of wine production and when explorers started finding new places outside of Europe each new settlement would start planting grapevines. Some of the areas were quite successful and others, not so much. Many times when new settlements started after a church was established monks would start growing grapes to make wine for the church.

Weather and climate conditions are very different in Europe than in places the explorers landed like Florida, so the vines did not behave the same way because the climate was so different. So the classic style of wines produced in France, Italy, Germany and Spain could not be reproduced, even if the same grapes were planted. Europe is most of the time cooler than the rest of the world.

Old World countries include: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Greece, Hungary and Romania.

New World countries include: United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Mexico and Uruguay.

The main character differences between the wines are:

Old World wines are Higher acidity, lighter body, lower alcohol, restrained and elegant and Terroir driven. (Terroir is the French word for soil, but it also means every aspect of the environment, weather, shade, all things that encompasses the grape, from root to grape, from beginning to end).

New World wines are Lower acidity, fuller bodied, higher alcohol, powerful and fruit-forward. Also, the laws of winemaking are not as defined in the New World as Old World. Winemakers can try anything and everything to bring out the best of the grapes, using oak barrels, longer aging, not using barrels at all but stainless tanks. There are many wines that need a secondary fermentation (malolactic fermentation) to bring out the more subtle flavors the New World winemaker is free to try it all…the New World winemaker is about 4000 years behind the tried and true winemaking experience found in the Old World winemakers.

Actually, one of the biggest differences in the attitudes and mindset of the Old World, there is not even a word in the French vocabulary for winemaker, the term they use is Vigneron, which means grape grower. They fully believe that the wine is made in the vineyard. They are driven by strict laws, tradition, they rarely manipulate their wines, they label wines by region not by the grape and they use subtle oak flavors.

New World wines have the thought that wines are made in the winery (this is debated all the time), there is sometimes very heavy manipulation of wines, powerful oak flavors, lots of science and technology is involved, loose laws and wines are labeled by the grape.

Ok, enough talk about Old vs. New, the best advice I can give you is go pick up a bottle of Burgundy from France and then pick up a bottle of Pinot Noir from one of the New World producers and take both home, invite a friend or two over and just taste them side by side.

The difference should surprise you at first and by the second glass of wine, you should also be able to taste the similarities! Let me know how the tasting of Old vs New World works out for you! I learned a lot and thanks for the question! You guys ROCK!!!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi