I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.

I'm Levy Dalton.

I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, How long can a grapevine live, including the root systems?

If you look at cuttings as extensions of the original plant,

then in one way, every single shardinavine on the planet is an extension of the original Chardonnay plant.

So looking at Vine Age this way, through cuttings, it seems that grape vines can live indefinitely.

But once a cutting throws roots, the vine begins what we think of as the plant's natural

life cycle. Most vines have life cycles similar to the length of a person's life cycle.

In the first few years of a plant's life,

the vine doesn't produce very much quality fruit.

It's putting much of its energy into

establishing a strong root system. You start to get some decent fruit once the vines are

six to 12 years old and then the vines start producing more and more mature fruit as the years go by.

Winemakers usually prize the fruit from vineyards in the 30 to 45 year old range.

Vines set at hundred years old, usually produce much less fruit,

but the fruit is often prized as making more complex wine

due to all the unique things you'll find in the grapes that come most likely from the complex root systems.

Old finds also have an easier time ripening fruit usually because the plants are balanced and established and

they've had a lot of practice. We don't see too many vineyards with 120

plus years on them and this is partly because many winemakers will replant

older vineyards to increase productivity or to change clones or change a

vineyard layout. And Phyloxer are wiped out a lot of old vineyards around the world, about 120 years ago.

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