I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up a bottle of wine that had the words “old vines,” “vieilles vignes,” or “vigna vecchia” on the label and turned it around to find absolutely no further information about the vineyard that produced it. Were the vines 40 years old or 140? Did this come from one old vineyard or several? Those two words seem to be doing an awful lot of work while, at the same time, meaning almost nothing.
With the exception of a few regions in Spain (Priorat, Rioja, Ribera del Duero) and in Greece, the term “old vines” isn’t officially regulated or defined anywhere. Producers are free to use it however they like, regardless of actual vine age. And the reverse happens just as often: plenty of wines genuinely made from old vines never mention it at all, either because producers can’t be bothered, or because all of their vines are old and it doesn’t feel worth saying on every bottle.
That problem, multiplied by the hundreds of thousands around the world, is a big part of why the Old Vine Registry exists, and today I’m extremely proud to announce the next step in that project: the launch of the Old Vine Registry Seal. The OVR Seal is a program that allows producers, retailers, and importers to showcase wines made from the vineyards cataloged in the Old Vine Registry.
Wines made from old vines are special. They are different. They are less common. And consumers might appreciate that fact a bit more if they only had a way of consistently recognizing wines that were made from old vineyards around the world.
That’s what we’ve designed the OVR Seal to do. It clearly communicates that a wine comes from a registered vineyard, as well as the age category of that vineyard: 35+, 50+, 75+, 100+, and 150+ years old.
The seal, designed in several formats, is intended primarily for use on wine labels, but it can also appear on tech sheets, marketing materials, websites, e-commerce pages, and even vineyard signs, provided it remains associated with a specific registered vineyard, or a specific wine made from a registered vineyard.
It’s taken several months of hard work to pull this program together, with the help of stakeholders from several countries providing input into the early design drafts of the seal as well as the structure and terms of the program.
Meet the Launch Partners
The seal launches today with 11 initial launch partners—producers from 7 different countries—who were especially keen to be among the first to adopt the OVR Seal. They are:
- AYA Estate – a beautiful Relais & Châteaux property in the Melnik region of Bulgaria with several plots of 51-year-old Cabernet Franc vines. Their 2024 Melnik, produced by Seewines Spirit and about to be released, will be the first commercially available bottle in the world bearing the OVR seal.
- Bedrock Wine Co. – this Sonoma producer is one of the world’s premier stewards of old vineyards and a thought leader on old-vine wines and viticulture. Owner Morgan Twain-Peterson MW has written a very thoughtful article on why he is adopting the seal. Bedrock has a number of vineyards in the Old Vine Registry, including their eponymous Bedrock Vineyard, planted in 1888. The OVR Seal will appear on their 2026 wines, which will be released beginning in 2027.
- Bodega Ciclo Andino – this boutique producer in Mendoza, Argentina, farms 18 acres of own-rooted Malbec vines planted in 1920. They will be using the OVR Seal on the soon-to-be-released 2024 vintage of their “Mas de Cien” Reserve Malbec.
- Garage Wine Company – another globally recognized champion of old-vine wines and viticulture, founder Derek Mossman Knapp collaborates with farmers of several ancient vineyards in the Maule region of Chile, such as Nivaldo Morales and his 1900-planted Sauzal Vineyard. All of the Garage wines except those from Maipo will soon feature the OVR seal.
- Methymnaeos Organic Vineyards – one of the pioneers of modern viticulture on the Greek island of Lesvos, Methymnaeos farms the oldest documented commercial planting on the island. Owner and winemaker Yannis Lambrou will use the OVR Seal on the upcoming releases of his 2023 and 2024 wines beginning in June of 2027.
- Plaimont – this cooperative in the Gascony region of France has revitalized one of France’s oldest vineyards, the famous 1820-planted Pédebernarde vineyard, and farms many acres of old vineyards in Gascony and the Pyrenean foothills. Several of their wines will carry the OVR seal, but the first two to market will be their La Madeleine de Saint Mont and their Serie XT Colombard Vieilles Vignes, both to be released in 2027.
- Seghesio Family Vineyards – one of the most famous names in California Zinfandel, Seghesio farms several ancient vineyards, including their well-known Chianti Station vineyard planted in 1910. Seghesio will be using the OVR Seal on future bottlings of their Montafi Ranch Red Blend, Seghesio Home Ranch Zinfandel, and Chianti Station Sangiovese Blend.
- Sown Estate – a newer, family-run property in Napa, Sown Estate farms a spectacular 35-year-old hillside vineyard at 1,100 feet of elevation on the slopes of Mount George in Napa above the Coombsville AVA. Their estate wines will feature the OVR Seal when they are next labeled and bottled.
- Tenuta Santa Maria di Gaetano Bertani – The Bertani family has been making wine in the Veneto region since at least 1567. Among their many vineyard holdings is the 1965-planted Lepigia Vineyard. Tenuta Santa Maria will be featuring the OVR Seal on their 2026 Lepigia Soave, which will be released in 2027.
- Versado Wine – This tiny producer in the Lujan de Cuyo region of Mendoza in Argentina farms 7.4 acres of own-rooted Malbec planted in 1920. Their 2020 Centenary Vines Malbec, to be released in March of 2027, will carry the OVR Seal.
- Wooldridge Creek Winery – located in Oregon’s Applegate Valley, this family-run estate farms a large vineyard site planted in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They produce an array of wines that will soon bear the OVR Seal.
Why This Matters
The Old Vine Registry’s mission has three pillars: Identify, Value, and Preserve. The registry exists first to identify and catalog old vineyards around the world for the simple reason that you can’t preserve what you don’t know about. Secondly, the stories of these vineyards, the people who farm them, and the wines they make need to be documented and told. Only then will people understand the value of these vineyards and be willing to pay for the wines they produce. If we can get people to buy the wines, then the vineyards will continue to have economic value for those who farm them, and we can begin the conversation around preserving them. We don’t preserve what we don’t value.
As the largest and most authoritative database of 35+ year-old vineyards around the world, the Old Vine Registry has made great progress on the identification piece of that mission. We’ve come a long way from an 1800-line spreadsheet in just three years, but there’s plenty more work ahead. The OVR Seal represents the next step towards fulfilling that mission. By giving wine producers, importers, and retailers the ability to clearly identify wines made from registered vineyards, we’re hoping to move the old-vine conversation down to the level of the shelf or the wine list, where it actually reaches wine drinkers.
The hope is that the OVR Seal can play a part in helping to create a viable commercial category for old-vine wines. It’s not hard to imagine a day when you could walk into a wine shop and find a section dedicated to old-vine wines, or filter an e-commerce site for them. Restaurants could carve out a section of their wine list, or just put an icon next to old-vine bottles. Importers could let buyers sort and filter their portfolios the same way. When such options become a reality, we will have moved the conversation about old vines and their value to center stage, where it belongs.
If you happen to be a wine producer with a qualifying vineyard, you can submit your vineyard to the Old Vine Registry for free, and once it’s in the database, you can register to use the OVR seal.
If you’re a wine lover, the easiest place to start engaging with old vineyards is to pull an old-vine bottle off the shelf and see whether it’s already in the Registry. If it’s not, you can submit it yourself, or reach out to the producer and encourage them to do so.
So the next time one of us turns around a bottle looking for an answer, we can find one.
