The aptly named Old Vine Project (OVP) has its origins back in 2002, when viticulturist Rosa Kruger began hunting down old blocks of vines.
Word slowly spread and people came forward pointing out where they knew old plots to be and then some producers such as Eben Sadie began taking matters into their own hands and making arrangements with growers.
Sadie’s Old Vineyard Series kicked off in 2006 when he produced (at least what was then) South Africa’s oldest Chenin Blanc from a vineyard in Stellenbosch, which he named after the owner, a Mrs Kirsten.
By 2010 more producers, such as Chris Alheit, Duncan Savage and the Mullineuxs, were also tracking down old vines and in 2014 Kruger released the first ever website cataloguing old vineyards with help from the South African Wine Industry Information & Systems (SAWIS).
But recent funding from Johann Rupert of Antonij Rupert winery – whose father did much to preserve historic ‘Cape Dutch’ houses from destruction – has really kicked the project up a gear.
The OVP’s main task is to find old vines that are at least 35-years-old and, if they are good enough to produce wine, have them certified. This certification will be available from the 2017 vintage.
The OVP goes further though as, where necessary and possible, viticultural consultant Jaco Engelbrecht can work with growers to restore old vineyards and bring them back to a decent measure of productivity. Although old vines are naturally low yielding, the right viticultural techniques have been shown to slightly increase yields.
The OVP also wants to encourage growers to, “plant to get old”, as the project’s communications manager André Morgenthal explained to the drinks business, ensuring that growers see the benefits of old vines and take care to keep and preserve the right blocks rather than grubbing everything up every few decades in pursuit of high yields.
Most importantly, the project wants to ensure old vineyards and those on their way to being 35 years old and older, don’t just remain for the sake of looking pretty or as a nod to heritage but actually remain financially viable too.
Currently, small growers in South Africa with precious old vines are often experiencing the same problems faced by growers in countries like Chile, especially in the south of that country in Itata and Bío-Bío, where the cost of running an old vineyard relative to the eventual yield and what the grower receives for the fruit they produce is simply not economically sound.
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Editor's Note: Take a look at the post and images on Visual Viticulture's website - Theewaterskloof dam reveal treasures from our past. Due to the recent drought, old vines, referred to as ghost vines, have made their appearance.