The wine world is divided into two camps – the Old and the New World.
Oldies, in the red corner, ready! Newbies, in the blue
corner, ready! Fight fight fight!! Now, wait a minute, who are they? How
different are they and why? Are they battling against each other?
Who’s who?
Old World wine is generally
produced within Europe - the most important players
are France,
Germany,
Austria,
Italy,
Spain
and Portugal.
These countries are known as the ‘classic’ wine producing regions.
New World wine is really
everything produced outside the Old World, led
by Australia,
New
Zealand, South Africa,
Chile,
Argentina
and the United States.
The two terms were originally assigned according to
geography, think John Smith's Old World and
Pocahontas' New World. It wasn't simply
a case of how long the countries had been making wine; South Africa,
for example, has been producing since the 1650s.
Nowadays, the terms are descriptors of two different
wine-making philosophies.
Tactics
Stainless steel vs concrete vats, cultured yeasts vs wild
yeasts, picking according to sugar levels vs picking according to taste...to
name just a few! The New World, without
deep-rooted wine-making traditions, has technology on its side.
Styles
Old World wines are usually
more subtle than New World wines, with
delicate fruit, less obtrusive oak and lower alcohol levels. The region
is more important than the grape. Everything from the area’s climate to
the vineyard’s soil gives the wine a sense of place - this is known as the
expression of terroir.
New World wines, largely
due to the hotter climate, tend to be richer, fruitier and more alcoholic.
Wine-makers strive to bring out the fruitiness in the wines as well as
buttery creamy flavours by generous use of oak. There is arguably less
focus on terroir; you can't pinpoint
the region but you know it's Cabernet!
First impressions
As you may have spotted when scouring the shelves for a nice
Merlot, Old World wines traditionally don't
list the grape variety on the label. This is largely due to the belief
that terroir is more important than the
grape. With the grape variety on the front label, un-missable even to
Auntie Mabel, and informative back labels, it’s no wonder that New World wines are considered more consumer-friendly!
Pioneered by the Aussies, New World
producers go for bright colourful labels and animal images - kangaroos,
elephants, frogs, lizards…Attenborough would have a field day in Tesco’s wine
aisle. Animals aren’t just pictured,
some give their names to wine. As was reported
in Decanter in March 2006, putting an animal name on a bottle of wine will more
than double its sales in the United
States!
A truce?
It’s not a case of ‘out with the old and in with the
new’. Recently, the two sides have been
shaking hands and swopping tips. Now, you can be from the New World, but produce Old World
style wines and vice versa. It’s all
happening - great French names planting in South America,
Italians creating brands and revamping labels and Aussies producing terroir expressive wines!
Meet the two in action!
Which do you prefer – New or Old World
wines? Come to our tasting on 14th November to see the two go head-to-head as
they fight for your vote!