WINES HAVE LONG been categorized as belonging to one of two worlds: Old or New. The Old World includes all European countries and a few in Asia and North Africa; the New World encompasses everything else. But I wonder how useful or, for that matter, accurate divvying up wines this way is today?
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Three or four decades ago, there was no question that wines produced in Chile, California and New Zealand were new: Vineyards and wineries appeared in places where they’d never existed, though winemakers in these places often looked to European wines as their archetypes. Consider the California producers of the 1970s who name-checked the Old World with Rhine Riesling, Hearty Burgundy or, my personal favorite, Pink Chablis.
Today such names are outlawed by the E.U., and producers in the Old World are just as likely to ape the styles of the New. To characterize their modern creations as “New World” implies ripe fruit and, often, a liberal use of new oak. I’ve even heard winemakers in Sancerre describe their Sauvignon Blanc-based wines as “New Zealand style”—unthinkable a few decades ago.
“ ‘Shared winemaking and viticultural techniques have helped to merge the Old World and the New.’ ”
Some New World-style wines produced in the Old World have helped put the regions where they’re made back on the map. In Sicily—once associated with commercial plonk from cooperatives—Planeta was one of the producers that helped raise the island’s profile in the 1990s by using non-native grapes to produce wines that won acclaim from critics.
When I was first studying wine a few decades ago, I learned that New World wines were identified by grape names and Old World wines were labeled with the names of places. That’s not necessarily true anymore. A basic Burgundy will no longer simply be labeled Bourgogne Rouge or Bourgogne Blanc but, rather, Bourgogne Rouge Pinot Noir or Bourgogne Blanc Chardonnay.
According to Véronique Boss-Drouhin, head winemaker at Maison Joseph Drouhin in Beaune, when her family began labeling their basic Bourgognes with grape names in the 1970s, most wine drinkers didn’t pay attention to the variety in the bottle. This has changed, she added, thanks in no small part to the educational efforts of New World winemakers.
Shared winemaking and viticultural techniques, too, have helped to merge the Old World and the New. Jim White, director of grape growing and winemaking at Cloudy Bay, the New Zealand winery that put New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on the map, credited a “more connected” global winemaking community with the erosion of the boundary between Old and New. He noted that the “precise winemaking” of the New World has been adopted by winemakers in Europe whose winemaking practices might formerly have been based more on history and tradition than science.
Some winemakers in what’s considered the New World reject that title outright. Argentine winemaker Roberto de la Mota of Mendel Wines in Mendoza makes what he calls “classical” wines, inspired by his training in Bordeaux. Mr. de la Mota pointed out that wine has been made in Argentina for hundreds of years; at Mendel estate there is a Malbec vineyard, planted in 1928, nearly a century old.
Perhaps the biggest factor in the merging of the two worlds is the changing climate across the planet. Wildfires are currently raging across Australia, and in the Old World warmer temperatures are changing the types of wines produced, and where. The credible sparkling wine now made in England is one example—as is the fact that important French Champagne houses have invested there.
Germany has undergone a dramatic transformation in terms of where grapes are planted. In the steep hills surrounding the Mosel river, where even ripening Riesling was once a challenge, more vintners are growing the delicate, temperature-sensitive Pinot Noir grape and having no problem getting it ripe.
Even in Bordeaux, that bastion of tradition, new varieties have recently been approved for cultivation by a producers’ syndicate acknowledging the effect climate change has had on the region. Proposed grapes include Portugal’s Touriga Nacional and the white grape known as Albariño in Spain. And many new châteaux owners are not French, as the Chinese continue to buy Bordeaux properties at a rapid clip.
Yet even as the grapes, the technology, the weather and the people making the wine change, certain wines remain recognizably of a place. The four I chose to accompany this column, two Old World and two New, are good examples.
One comes from Burgundy, the French region whose Pinot Noirs winemakers the world over try to replicate. Still, nothing tastes quite like a Burgundy Pinot Noir. And while winemakers in other parts of the world have tried to grow Italian red grapes such as Sangiovese and Nebbiolo, they haven’t replicated the true specialness of those grapes grown in their native Tuscany and Piedmont. Though less famous, the Italian white grape Fiano (featured below) is every bit as ancient and distinctive.
In the New World, two countries have managed to improve on Old World varietals: New Zealand with Sauvignon Blanc and Argentina with Malbec. I mean no disrespect to Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé, Quincy or the other Loire Valley appellations where Sauvignon Blanc grows very well, but wines from these places haven’t caught the world’s attention the way New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has. And though Malbec originated in the Cahors region of France, wine drinkers everywhere know Argentine Malbec; Cahors Malbec, not so much.
I don’t know if I will live to see the Old World/New World dichotomy break down completely, but I’m guessing the next generation of wine drinkers will look at things quite differently—as they raise their glasses of New World-inspired, Bordeaux-produced Albariño.
Email Lettie at wine@wsj.com.
BEST OF BOTH / BOTTLES WITH TRUE OLD- AND NEW-WORLD CHARACTER
OLD WORLD
1. 2017 Domaine Michel Bourgogne Pinot Noir, $39: The Lafarge family has produced Pinot Noir since the 18th century; they’re famous today for their first-rate Volnay. But Domaine Michel Lafarge’s very appealing basic Bourgogne is a lithe, bright and pretty medium-bodied Pinot with moderate complexity and maximum deliciousness.
2. 2018 Clelia Romano Colli di Lapio Fiano di Avellino, $27: Exporter Marco de Grazia described the vinous sensibility of owner and winemaker Clelia Romano as “ancient as the hills.” Ms. Romano’s take on Fiano di Avellino—a white grape of Campania that dates back to Roman times—is fresh and thrillingly mineral.
NEW WORLD
3. 2019 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand, $25: When this wine first debuted in 1985, very few wine drinkers outside New Zealand knew Kiwi-style Sauvignon. Today it would be hard to find a wine drinker anywhere who does not. This iteration is marked by the trademark grassy aroma, lush fruit and bright acidity.
4. 2017 Mendel Malbec Mendoza Argentina, $27: French-trained winemaker Roberto de la Mota calls his Malbec, aged in French oak, “classic” in style. Though the aromas are all exuberant red and dark fruit, the wine itself is complex and structured, even a bit tightly wound, improving with aeration and time.
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