PrePhylloxera Wines – Tasting the Difference

Ungrafted Vines – what is the impact on the wine?

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I use this wine key: Forge de Laguiole Ebony
I have used this glass in this Video: Nude Glass Powerful Reds
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:

2022 Sermann Altenahr Eck Wurzelechte Riesling, Germany, Ahr
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/sermann+altenahr+eck+wurzelechte+riesling+germany+ahr?referring_site=KSB

2019 Bodegas Naia-Vina Sila ‘Naiades’, Rueda, Spain
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/naia+vina+isla+naiades+rueda+castilla+y+leon+spain/2019?referring_site=KSB

2022 De Martino Viejas Tinajas Cinsault, Itata Valley, Chile
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/de+martino+vieja+tinajas+cinsault+itata+valley+chile?referring_site=KSB

2021 Langmeil Winery ‘The Freedom 1843’ Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/langmeil+the+freedom+1843+sra+barossa+valley+south+australia/2021?referring_site=KSB

The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.

Over the millennia wine has encountered many threads and challenges. However, its biggest challenge could have upended viticulture as we know it around the world. In the middle of the 19th century plants from the new world were all the rage in Europe and thousands of tons were imported into France alone.

They were planted into the gardens of the elites to study them and to show off with those collections. No one noticed the stowaways – little insects and diseases that were imported alongside the plants at the time. One of them was particularly dangerous to Vitis Vinifera vines and that insect is called Phylloxera.

According to the Oxford Companion to Wine the first report of Phylloxera was in England in 1863 by an Oxford University Professor. When vineyards started dying at the end of the 1860s it was already too late. The little insect has spread across the vineyards of the old world leaving a trail of destruction. Phylloxera has a complex life cycle but the damage mainly occurs when the female 1mm small louse is feeding on the sap of the vines underground.

The feeding itself is not the problem but the European Vitis Vinifera varieties have not developed resistance to the bacteria and fungi that enter the vine through the feeding wounds. American varieties built up resistance as they coexisted alongside the pest. They developed a corky layer below the wounds that protected them from microbes entering the plant. The wine production in France fell by over 70% from 1875 to 1889 and winemakers tried exceedingly desperate methods to control phylloxera. Flooding showed some positive effects but it wasn’t an option in many areas that did not have access to enough water or for vineyards on slopes.

Another popular treatment was pumping carbon bisulfide into the soil. This procedure killed off Phylloxera but also everything else and in some cases destroyed the vines. In the end, salvation came in the form of grafting the vitis vinifera vines onto an American rootstock.

Grafting works like this: an American rootstock is selected for its characteristics and its ability to cope in the location you want to plant it in – tolerance for drought and ability to survive in chalky soils are for example factors that can be taken into consideration.
A cutting of a European vitis vinifera vine – like Chardonnay, Riesling, or Sangiovese is then attached to those roots. At a nursery, they grow together over time, and they can then be planted in the vineyard. Back in the 19th century, many vignerons were concerned whether grafting the vines onto a foreign plant would impact the quality of their vines or impart the weird foxy flavors of the American vines into our wines.

over the Millennia wine has encountered many threats and challenges however its biggest challenge could have upended viticulture as we know it around the world in the middle of the 19th century plants from the new world were all the rage in Europe and thousands of tons of those plants were imported into France alone they were planted Into The Gardens of the elites to study them and to show off with those collections no one noticed the starways little insects and diseases that were imported alongside with the plant material one of those insects was particularly dangerous for Vitus ven Vines and it was called philox according to the oxid companion to Wine the first reporting of fuxa was in England in 1863 by a professor from Oxford University when in the late 1860s The Vineyard started dying it was already too late the little insect had spread across the old world leaving a trail of Destruction pilora has a complex life cycle but the damage mainly occurs when the female 1 mm small La feeds on the sap of the vine underground the feeding itself is not the problem but the European vid Fifer varieties have not developed sufficient resistance against the fungi and bacteria that enter the vine through the feeding wounds this was not a problem for the American Vines as they had built up resistance after coexisting with the pest for Millennia they are forming a Corky layer below the wounds that stop microbes from entering the plant the wine production in France for about over 70% from 1875 to 1889 and wine makers therefore tried exceedingly desperate methods to control philox flooding showed some positive results but it wasn’t really an option in areas that didn’t have access to sufficient amounts of waters or Vineyards on slopes another popular treatment was pumping carbon bisulfide into the soil this killed off fxur but it also killed of everything else and in some cases even destroyed the vines in the end the survation came in the form of grafting a European vinifera Vine onto an American root stock grafting works like that you select an American root stock based on its characteristics and its ability to survive in the location you want to plant it in factors like drought resistance or the ability to cope with chalky swords are for example factors that are taken into consideration a cutting of a European vinifera Vine like shardon wling or sanesa for example are then attached to the American root stock at a nursery they grow together over time and can then be planted into the vineyard back in the 19th century many venons were concerned whether grafting their Vines onto a foreign plant will impact quality or introduce some of those foxy flavors into their wines today we know that these worries were largely unfounded but the discussion continues on whether prefera Vines were producing the better wines or not the procedure of grafting certainly has some downsides it can introd uce plant viruses into the vine for example when grafting tools are contaminated I’ve tasted some prefo wines like this 1863 coleta Port that I’ve tasted a few years ago and I can still taste it today it is however impossible to compare those historic wines to the wines that are being produced today you just cannot taste a large selection of wines made from grafted and ungrafted Vines from the same Vineyard made in the same way next to each other in order to decide which one is better but regardless of that I want to explore that topic in more detail my team has selected four wines made from ungrafted vines in some of those small pockets of the wine world where that is still possible I’m going to taste them side by side in order to find out whether there’s a common denominator something that connects them so let’s dive [Music] in so let’s start off with the 2022 Zan re Al EG from the r region in Germany you know F has a problem with very poor soils so for example Sandy sots or slate sots can be an issue for the little Pest and therefore some areas like the mosle for example or they are still have Vines planted on their own Roots legally it’s not really allowed to replant Vineyards with own rooted Vines you should use grafted Vines that’s just a way of red ucing the spread of phoera but some wine makers still just do it it’s kind of difficult to prove that they planted on like own rooted material this Vineyard was actually planted in the 1930s and well back then apparently it was still legal to do so so the wine is pale yellow in color well it looks like a wling and it smells like a wling it is quite beautiful with notes of peaches and cream and apricat and yeah it’s it’s really really appealing a very beautiful nose the wine is really light and Lively it kind of dances across your tongue 11.5% of alcohol lots of freshness and liveliness a long finish so a very good reeling I’ve never tasted anything from that Winery and I really like this wine it’s it’s for me this is a 90.1 but is there anything that would indicate that the vines were unrooted that they were ungrafted I I find it really difficult to argue that point I think this is a really well-made wine and maybe it is better because it is from really old Vines people tend to agree that old Vines produce higher quality to certain level and this is this is really high in quality but but yeah I I wouldn’t say I can taste that this is an ungrafted Vineyard quite a bit of salinity at the Finish as well so this is really delicious beautiful wine so we’re moving on to Rua in Spain and this is the 2019 nades from bodas NAA waa is well known for producing light and fresh white wines but it’s also a region with spectacular Vineyards some of the oldest Vineyards in Europe and this Vineyard is actually 130 years old so some of those Vines were actually planted during a time when felox had just reached Europe but hadn’t quite reach Roa those Vines are really gnal old dudes planted in Sandy soils where felo has a hard time surviving I was so surprised by the quality of some of those high-end Rua wines they can be absolutely delicious really complex and they are usually still fairly affordable but absolutely delicious so I’m hoping that this wine doesn’t disappoint I mean the story at least sounds very very compelling so let’s see what’s inside this bottle in their material they are stating that most of those Vines were ungrafted so some of them must be grafted and that would be interesting kind of tasting the grafted ones separate from the ungrafted ones but then again that’s really difficult to pull off and you always have the factor that the ungrafted vines will be a lot lot older therefore producing probably higher end fruit looking good slightly darker than the reing a pale gold I would call this color so this is completely different to an entry-level Rua it’s much more complex it was fermented and matured in French burques therefore just giving this spicy Smoky note to the wine but the fruit can actually cope with that really well because there’s so much concentration there so it smells of pears and apple there’s a touch of bacon fat there but it’s not like an in your face aromatic wine it’s it’s much deeper than that on the palette it’s really concentrated and Rich great freshness and liveliness a lot of substance I mean it has lots of power but the power is then broken up by the acidity there’s a touch of salinity here as well so it’s yeah it’s it’s a whole mouthful of wine so I’m going to rate this 92 points I think it’s a delicious wine and after 5 years of Aging it still feels relatively fresh and young so I’m guessing that this can age another 5 to 10 years easily this retails at a similar price point to the previous wine so €25 probably around about $30 us and I think at that price this is a real bargain I mean just consider the fact that this is from some of the oldest vines in the world and it’s just beautiful and really appealing but there’s this big story of this background to it as well which makes the wine more enjoyable so let’s move on to the Reds and this is the 2022 vigas tinas from De Martino in itata Chile so this sanso Vineyard is also planted ungrafted it’s not as old as the previous Vineyards it’s only 35 40 years old but in Chile it is still possible to plant ungrafted material as the LA never made it to Chile so after fxur was already present in North America and then spread across Europe wine makers started to take notice and importing new plant material became more and more restricted so today there are some areas that are still fuura free but it’s very difficult to keep out a tiny la like that so Chile is doing its best in order to make sure that filu doesn’t spread across their country so s is actually a great variety that I quite enjoy it’s more a Workhorse Variety in most regions but if you farm it right and keep yields low it can be super delicious refreshing and light this one is actually fermented and aged in aora keeping up a tradition that existed in this area since the 16th century it’s kind of crazy to talk about Chile as a new world country if they already started making wine hundreds and hundreds of years ago but still so as you can see this is very pain pale in color I mean it’s it’s pesque you can see your hand through the wine it’s it’s super light super light on the nose it has this beautiful fruit flavor so there’s cherries there blackberries raspberries a little bit of red currants as well and there’s also quite a lot of spice so it’s it’s really beautiful this pepperiness meatiness is a great addition to the clear bried fruit flavor good good notes on the palad this is actually very long the acidity is very fresh there’s good grip there as well just delicious you know even if the region is phosphora free planting vines on their own roots on root stocks that are not completely fuxx tolerant can come with some issues in the early 2000 for example the region of Central otago experienced some Outburst of filox which kind of caused a lot of stress amongst the wine makers as they didn’t really factor in that risk and had planted their Vineyards on root stocks that weren’t fuera resistant so those areas where there is no fuura are usually very careful even when people enter The Vineyards in order to make sure that they don’t carry fuxx on their shoes for example and just by accident introduce it to their Vineyards this is a beautiful sanso it’s fresh and Lively it might lack a little bit of depth and concentration but I still really like it I’m going to rate it 91 points so last but not least we’re going to Australia and this is the 2021 Lang mile Lang mile Barosa the freedom shiras from a Vineyard planted in 1843 well I mean they’re saying it’s believed to be planted in 1843 so it could be a little younger than that but still I mean that’s crazy old so the vineyard is 181 years old The Vines are still producing fruit and they are able to make a wine out of those grapes crazy but yeah so this Vineyard was planted before filo was even a thing which kind of suggests that it was planted ungrafted I’m always in awe when I walk through those very very old Vineyards surprisingly many of those super old Vineyards are actually in the new world and not in the old world because in the old world most of those Vineyards were ripped out at the end of the 19th century beginning of the 20th century because of felux but yeah those super old Vines are actually a monument to the history of Agriculture of wine making on this planet it’s just crazy that something that is living and farmed by humans can survive for such a long time and still produce enough fruit in order to turn them into a great wine so this is definitely quite a bit darker than the s s s or shiras is known for producing really dark colored red wines and this certainly is no exception it smells of plums Blackberry there’s also kind of like a wet soil Dimension to this it’s it’s quite beautiful a little spicy and there’s some black pepper here as well so it’s definitely concentrated and rich on the palette it’s super concentrated big big there’s quite a bit of alcohol there I mean it’s 14.8% of alcohol but it’s well integrated concentrated in Rich wine with really ripe tenants and interestingly there’s also a little bit of salinity here so so it just kind of tastes a little bit salty that might be the common denominator across those four wines they all showed a little bit of saltiness maybe the sansour didn’t show as much but this one the waya wine and the wling they all had a little bit of saltiness is it due to the ungrafted vines or due to something else who knows it could also have something to do with the age of the vineyard it can obviously also be something that is introduced into The Vineyards because of the teroa but as those wines were from very different places I don’t think that’s the case maybe it is actually the age more than the ungrafted because the sanso was actually not from A Very Old Vineyard but from ungrafted Vines and didn’t show for that distinct saltiness however this is absolutely beautiful it’s big and bold so you should eat like a steak with it but but it tastes delicious and I’m going to rate it 94 points all right this was an interesting Excursion into prefo wines I really enjoyed this tasting and I hope you learned something from this video it’s very difficult to pinpoint the characteristics of preo wines if there was a common denominator it was this slight saltiness but this is obviously quite anecdotal just based on those four wines but still there was this one thing at least that connected all four wines but wait there was one more thing and that was the quality I mean those wines were really delicious maybe that is due to the fact that they are from old Vineyards old Vineyards tend to produce smaller crops and therefore more concentration in the wines but maybe there was the preux ra ungrafted magic in play as well so thank you for watching I hope you enjoyed this video if you did then please like it down here and subscribe to my channel my question of the day is what do you think about preux vines ungrafted vines do they add quality are they better than grafted ones let me know Down Below in the comments I hope I see you guys again very soon until then stay thirsty a [Music]