History in a Bottle: In Oregon, where new wine projects seem to launch every day, the few truly old vineyards are precious resources

摘要

If you're looking for wines made from old vines, yourmind probably journeys to Germany, France, Spain or Italy. In the New World, it might be 19th-century Shiraz from the Barossa, or Zinfandel from California. But do you know that many of America's most interesting old-vine bottlings are made in Oregon?When you see "old vine," "ancient vine," "original vine," or some other reference to vine age on the label of a U.S. wine, these are unregulated terms. The federal government is silent on the matter. It's basically an honor system, although there's considerable agreement that 35 years is a fair age to be called old vines.