Campo de Borja, DO, Spain
Garnacha vines planted in 1939 located in Magallón in Campo de Borja, Spain.
Campo de Borja, DO - Spain
The Campo de Borja wine region, located in Aragón, Eastern Spain is known as the “Empire of Garnacha”. The cradle of the variety, the development of Garnacha vines here is closely linked to the establishment of the Monastery of Veruela by Cistercian monks in 1145.
Today, there are around 3,300 hectares of Garnacha vines in the region - just over half of the total vineyard area - and 423 hectares are over 35 years of age. As yields are so low, as little as one bottle per vine, every year parcels are grubbed up to be replaced with almond trees or more productive young vines. To try to protect the heritage parcels that remain, the DO Campo de Borja undertook two studies as part of their Historic Garnachas project to prove the value of old vine Garnacha.
The first pillar of research, carried out by researchers at the Public University of Navarra, was a project aimed at establishing a scientific method of verifying the age of vines. This is important, as prior to the 1970s, the vineyard registers are often inaccurate, with parcels sometimes planted decades before they were officially registered. Professor Luis Gonzaga Santesteban and Mónica Galar Martínez have developed a method to verify their age accurately, which combines the analysis of historic aerial photographs, measurements of the height and growth between pruning cuts, as well as the identification of rootstocks.
The second part of the study, led by Professor Vicente Ferreira at The University of Zaragoza, studied the particular nature of the varietal aromas found in grapes from young and old vines. Six sites were selected across the DO, with old vine parcels compared to neighbouring young vines with similar soil types. The samples from all the younger parcels were found to be quite similar in profile, with more of the typical red fruit notes commonly associated with Garnacha, whereas the older vineyards were found not only to produce wines with more complex aromas, but also express terroir much more clearly.
To find out more about this groundbreaking research that proves that old vines make more complex, age-worthy and characterful wines, read our detailed report on our study trip to the region or see the video on their website.
