For the seventh time, winegrowers, researchers, educators, importers, sommeliers, writers, and wine lovers are gathering in person to learn about, celebrate, and enjoy old vines and the wines they produce.
For the first time, the event is being held in California Wine Country, and I can get you a discount on tickets. Who loves you, baby? Find the promo code at the bottom of this article.
The Old Vine Conference is organized and run by a non-profit organization of the same name founded by Sarah Abbott, MW, Leo Austin, and Alun Griffiths, MW. The organization seeks to make old vine wines a distinct and credible category within the wine industry, and in so doing, recognize, preserve, and support old vineyards around the world.
The OVC puts on all sorts of events around the world each year, from smaller online symposia to field trips, but the crown jewel of the organization’s efforts is the multi-day conference, which features lectures, panels, presentations, tastings, and field trips to old-vine vineyards.
This year’s event will span 4 full days in California Wine country, beginning with a gala tasting and dinner on October 31st in Napa, at which Jancis Robinson will give an address, followed by a conversation between her and Paul Draper on stage for the attending audience.
The next day, November 1st, everyone will decamp to Santa Rosa for a full day of conferencing, with presentations, talks, and panels, including one that I will run about the commercial practicalities of creating an old-vine category of wines for consumers. I’ll also share some updates about the Old Vine Registry as part of that panel.
On November 2nd, attendees have the option of doing a day of field explorations, hosted by Sonoma County Winegrowers, with visits to some of Sonoma’s most storied old vineyards.
November 3rd, everyone will head to Lodi for another day of conference sessions. I’ll be participating in a panel that day as a panelist, discussing and even debating the meaning and value of “heritage” when it comes to old vines.
The last day will be another set of field trips to the old vineyards of Lodi.
This conference is going to be attended by the who’s-who of the wine world. In addition to Jancis Robinson and Paul Draper, you’ll get a chance to listen to and meet Rosa Kruger of the Old Vine Project in South Africa, Laura Catena of Catena Zapata, Derek Mossman Knap of the VIGNO project and Garage Wine Co. in Chile, Morgan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock Wine Co., Tegan Passalacqua of Sandlands and the Historic Vineyard Society, Andrea Farinette of Borgogno, Robert Joseph, Amanda Barnes MW, Joel Peterson, Michelle Bouffard, and many more.
I hope you’ll consider joining for a day, or for the whole shebang. You can see the detailed schedule by scrolling down to the middle of the conference page.
The 2025 Old Vine Conference: Meeting of the Minds
October 31st – November 4th, 2025
Napa, Sonoma, and Lodi
Day passes are available for each individual day of the conference, ranging from $150 to $300. Multi-day passes will run you $995 to $2095 for multiple-day combinations. You can purchase tickets in advance online here. To get a 15% discount on pricing use the promo code: vinography15 at checkout. The codes ARE case-sensitive, so don’t use any capital letters, and you’ll be able to put the promo code in after you select which ticket(s) you want.
