The Basics |
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New World vs. Old World |
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If you've every heard the terms New World wines and Old World wines thrown around, the difference
is rather simple. Wines described as Old World come from Europe and countries such as France, Italy
and Germany who have been making wine for many centuries. On the other hand, New World wines
come from countries that are newer to the winemaking game such as the United States,
Australia The difference between Old and New World does go beyond simple geography, though. The philosophy behind how these countries make their wine are also quite divergent. For one, the way they label their wines is very different. Most Americans are used to the New World approach, where wines are labeled by their varietal like Merlot Like many other things in the world of wine, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, in the famous region of Alsace in Eastern France, the wines are labeled in the New World style with the type of grape shown proudly on their bottles of top-notch Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Another significant difference between the two is in the overall approach to making wine. As you can probably guess, the countries of the Old World rely heavily on tradition and using the same methods that their ancestors did centuries ago. They feel that the wine is an expression of the environment (an idea called terroir) and depend less on getting fancy with the way the wine is manipulated. Since they're much newer to the game, New World winemakers are less concerned with tradition and more focused on creating great wine in any way they can. That means using advanced techniques such as chemically altering the wine and utilizing technology as well as mixing different grapes together to create unusual flavors. One final note: the New World countries for the most part generate bigger, bolder flavors and wines with more alcoholic content because the grapes that are grown in places like California |
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