Old and New World Wines

Strolling through wine stores, consumers find Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, wines sorted by grape variety. However, they also come across Rhone, Bordeaux and Chablis, wines sorted by locations or regions. Many novice wine drinkers don’t understand the difference, and, I will admit, I didn’t when I first started enjoying wine.

 

Old world refers to any wine from Europe. These wines are classified by growing region rather than grape. For example, French winemakers discovered that the Medoc region was too warm to grow Cabernet Sauvignon. However, in Italy the Nebbiolo grape thrives in the north, but does poorly in almost any other soil. All of these past discoveries led to today’s wine laws which mandate only certain grape varieties are grown in certain regions. It’s a pretty safe bet, when buying Bordeauxyou’ll get a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Frac, and Merlot.

 

Wine regulations vary from country to country, even from appellation to appellation. Below are a few general laws for wine production:

 

• Produced within, and contain grapes only grown within, the specified appellation.
• Use only permissible grape varieties and adhere to specified varietal amounts.
• Produce less than the specified maximum yield of grapes per hectare.
• Contain between the designated minimum and maximum alcohol percentage.
• Adhere to predetermined vineyard practices, winemaking practices and aging techniques.
• Pass chemical analysis and typicity tests.

 

The term new world applies to wines made in other regions of the world, such as the Americas, South Africa and Australia. New world wines are classified by the grape variety rather than the region where the grape was grown. Some experts believe new world wines are rich, not too acidic or tannic and packed fruit flavors. These wines are more suited for drinking alone; whereas old world wines were created to compliment the meal.