Tasting a wine from 250 year old vines

Recently, I came across an article in the New York Times by wine writer Eric Asimov. He regularly lists his favorite 20 wines under $20. I always like to see if I can get my hands on some but not every wine available in NY is available in CT. A friend of mine sent me an offering from Flat Iron Wines in NYC. They tracked down many of the wines with a description of them and all were priced below $20. I made up an order of 6 different wines with an eye out for wines from grapes I have not had or that were from old vines. With the mild winter we are having here in CT I felt OK with having them shipped during February.

The 2019 Luyt Pipeno Famila Ernesto Soto Carrizal is made with 100% Pais from 250 year old vines. The grape, also known as Mission and others was brought to Mexico, California and South America by the Spanish in the 1500s. It was once the mostly widely planted variety in Argentina.

I have been on a kick lately and have been seeking out wines from very old vines. See previous blog posting about this topic here. Many of the old vines are ungrafted, meaning they are on their own original roots and not grafted onto different root stock. Most of the world's vines are on grafted roots due to  phylloxera.  Phylloxera is the organism that was inadvertently brought to Europe from North America and eventually wiped out many of the vineyards in Europe and the rest of the world. The only cure was to graft on North American grape roots that were resistant to phylloxera. 

The Pais vines have a tendency to produce an abundance of grapes but older vines generally have smaller yields which lead to more concentrated flavors. In the hands of Famila Ernesto Soto, who produce this wine and others from some even older vines,  we get a lighter colored, fruity wine with a tannic backbone.  

Photo courtesy VinePair

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