Old World wines refers to wines that come from regions with a long documented history of wine production
Old World wine refers primarily to wine made in Europe but can also include other regions of the Mediterranean basin with long histories of winemaking such as North Africa and the Near East. The phrase is often used in contrast to "New World wine" which refers primarily to wines from New World wine regions such as the United States, Australia, South America and South Africa. The term "Old World wine" does not refer to a homogeneous style with "Old World wine regions" like Austria, France, Georgia, Italy, Portugal, and Spain each making vastly different styles of wine even within their own borders. Rather, the term is used to describe general differences in viticulture and winemaking philosophies between the Old World regions where tradition and the role of terroir lead versus the New World where science and the role of the winemaker are more often emphasized. In recent times, the globalization of wine and advent of flying winemakers have lessened the distinction between the two terms with winemakers in one region being able to produce wines that can display the traits of the other region—i.e. an "Old World style" wine being produced in a New World wine region like California or Chile and vice versa.[1]
"Old World" can also mean a wine style made for centuries by small winemakers intended to be consumed as a daily beverage to accompany a meal. These food and wine "pairings," so famous today (e.g. Chianti and Italian food) developed over generations by trial and error. The small village winemaker succeeded or failed on his wine's reputation as an acceptable "table" wine, be it highly expensive or budget priced.
By comparison, "New World" wines, while also being food friendly, are created to meet the tastes of contemporary wine drinkers. Contemporary wine drinkers, especially those in the large U.S. market, consume wine as a stand-alone beverage as much as a beverage to accompany a meal. Thus, the immediate "taste" is the overwhelming criteria by which a new-world wine is judged by the contemporary wine consumer.
^J. Robinson (ed) "The Oxford Companion to Wine" Third Edition pg 493 Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0-19-860990-6
OldWorldwine refers primarily to wine made in Europe but can also include other regions of the Mediterranean basin with long histories of winemaking...
distinction between these "New World" wines and those wines produced in "OldWorld" countries with a long-established history of wine production, essentially...
New Spain. Later, as OldWorldwine further developed viticulture techniques, Europe would encompass three of the largest wine-producing regions. Based...
came to be seen as capable of producing the best quality wine – equal to that of OldWorldwine regions. Napa Valley is now a major enotourism destination...
is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and American wine-producing regions. French wine traces its history to...
Italian wine is produced in every region of Italy. Italy is the world's largest wine producer, as well as the country with the widest variety of indigenous...
other oldworldwine producers, many traditional grape varieties still survive in Croatia, perfectly suited to their local wine hills. Modern wine-production...
Glenn; Overton, John (2010). "OldWorld, New World, Third World? Reconceptualising the Worlds of Wine". Journal of Wine Research. 21 (1). Informa UK Limited:...
for a long time, and oldwines are often sold for extraordinary prices. However, the vast majority of wine is not aged, and even wine that is aged is rarely...
needed] Like other oldworldwine producers, many traditional grape varieties still survive in Poland, perfectly suited to their local wine hills. The most...
Portugal has two wine-producing regions protected by UNESCO as World Heritage: the Douro Valley Wine Region (Douro Vinhateiro) and Pico Island Wine Region (Ilha...
the eighth-largest wine-producing country in the world. White wine accounts for almost two thirds of the total production. As a wine country, Germany has...
Georgia is one of the oldest wine-producing countries in the world. The fertile valleys and protective slopes of the South Caucasus were home to grapevine...
Hungarian wine has a history dating back to the Kingdom of Hungary. Outside Hungary, the best-known wines are the white dessert wine Tokaji aszú (particularly...
wine laws. Wine is regulated by regional, state, and local laws. The laws and their relative rigidity differ for New World and OldWorldwines. Old World...
process which involves oxidizing the wine through heat and ageing. The younger blends (three and five years old) are produced with the aid of artificial...
oldest wine making traditions, dating back at least 3000 years ago to the Bronze Age Illyrians. It belongs chronologically to the oldworld of wine producing...
Rioja wine History of the wine press Phoenicians and wine Lebanese wineWine in China Indian wine Speyer wine bottle Wine warehouses of Bercy "'World's oldest...
Speyer, Germany. It is considered the world's oldest known bottle of wine. The Speyer wine bottle most likely holds wine, and was originally found in 1867...
to 945,585 hectolitres of domestic wine consumed. The tradition of wine and viticulture in Switzerland is very old, beginning no later than the Roman...
Romania is one of the world's largest wine producers and fifth-largest among European wine-producing countries, after Italy, France, Spain, and Germany...
more neutral flavor profile. This style is often imitated in other OldWorldwine regions, such as Germany, where the grape is known as Ruländer, or more...
typical of young wines, through to brick red for mature wines and brown for older red wines. The juice from most purple grapes is greenish-white, the...
somewhat higher sugar content) are considered desirable by wine grape growers. In many OldWorldwine regions, natural rainfall is considered the only source...
combination of aging and colouring. Varieties of wine brandy can be found across the winemaking world. Among the most renowned are Cognac and Armagnac...
Old vine (French: vieilles vignes, German: alte Reben), a common description on wine labels, indicates that a wine is the product of grape vines that are...
Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While it is common to refer to this as champagne, European Union...
of OldWorldwine making and the new. Since the end of Apartheid, many producers have been working on producing more "international" styles of wine that...
fortified wine, including port, sherry, madeira, Marsala, Commandaria wine, and the aromatised wine vermouth. One reason for fortifying wine was to preserve...
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