The Science &
Preservation of Old Vines

Preserving Old Vineyards

Old vines are essential to protecting Mendoza’s unique viticultural heritage. LUCA Wines was created in 1999 with the specific mission to save these old vineyards from extinction.

Mendoza’s old vines, many between 70 and 100 years old, are under constant threat from economic pressures and urban expansion. LUCA’s economic strategy was built to ensure the viability of these sites for the small growers who manage them. By paying per hectare rather than per ton, LUCA incentivizes quality over quantity, making low-yielding old vines profitable for the for the producers. The winery often takes on vineyard mainte ance costs in exchange for grape supply agreements, while the Catena Institute provides critical technical support on everything from soil health to irrigation.

This preservation work unfolds in two key areas:

In-Situ (On-Site) Preservation: Vineyard Initiatives

Luján de Cuyo Initiative

In this historic region, LUCA partners with family growers to protect vineyards planted before 1923. Beyond direct financial incentives, the Catena Institute supports the families by creating parallel plots of their unique massale selections and offering them pruning material from their own vines to use for future replantings.

Salta Preservation Project

A similar partnership is being developed for the high-altitude Calchaquí Valley in Salta to safeguard the region’s distinctive massale selections of Torrontés, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec.

The Mugrón Experiment

To replace individual dead vines without replanting an entire plot, viticulturist Luis Reginato uses the traditional mugrón technique: burying a cane from an adjacent vine to allow it to root. This method was scientifically validated by the Catena Institute, which proved that the fruit from a mugrón shows many of the same charactersistics of its mother plant, confirming it as a vital tool for preserving a vineyard's unique genetics.

Ex-Situ (Off-Site) Preservation: Methods to Preserve Massale Selections

To create a safeguard against the loss of an entire vineyard and its one-of-a-kind genetic diversity, a meticulous process for ex-situ preservation is in place, overseen by the Catena family's viticultural team.

SELECTION

Each historic vineyard is inspected twice a year to identify and mark any plants showing symptoms of virus or fungus, ensuring that only the healthiest vines are selected for propagation.

CUTTINGS

In winter, the team takes 50-60 cm cuttings from the healthy plants, ideally with a small piece of two-year-old wood at the base (a "hammer" shape).

HYDRATION

The cuttings are bundled, labeled, and buried in trenches that are then flooded with water, keeping them perfectly hydrated throughout the winter.

PROPAGATION

In spring, the cuttings are planted in a dedicated Catena family nursery in Rivadavia, with a goal of preserving 5,000 plants from each unique massale selection.
This living genetic library already contains the material from historic sites like the Rosas Malbec (preserved since 2011) and the Laborde Syrah (preserved since 2023), with plans to include selections from the Scilipotti, Valverde, and Paganotto vineyards, as well as an old Pinot Noir from Patagonia, in 2025.

The Science and Preservation of Old Vines

Intrigued by her own blind tastings of old versus new vine lots, Laura Catena initiated a series of scientific experiments at the Catena Institute to test the hypothesis that older plants produce more concentrated, higher-quality fruit.

Managed by small, multi-generational family growers, these historic vineyards today are sustained by rigorous scientific research, preservation initiatives, and biodiversity studies. A collaborative effort between the Catena Institute of Wine and local research
institutions like INTA, CONICET, and the National University of Cuyo works to assess and safeguard Argentina’s century-old vines. This includes studies on phylloxera risk, experiments that prove the superior quality of old-vine fruit and programs that protect the genetic legacy of these vineyards for the future.

Here are two sample studies:

The Malbec Vine Age Experiment

Initiated in 2003, the objective of this experiment was to find potential differences in wines sourced from young and old Malbec plants grown in the same soil type. The study was set up in Lot 18 of the 80-year-old Angélica vineyard, which uniquely contains both original old vines and young vines propagated from them via layering (mugrón).

The methodology was: yields for both lots were set to 8,000 kg/hectare. From veraison (the onset of ripening), the berries were analyzed for anthocyanins, tannins, acidity, and pH. The pruned material was weighed to compare the vegetative expression of the lots after harvest. The two lots were then harvested and vinified separately in 500-liter stainless steel tanks to be analyzed and blind tasted.

Preliminary results from the first year showed a significant difference in the totals of anthocyanins and catechins between the old and young vines, which was the primary reason for extending the experiment to include micro vinifications. The results were unequivocal: Old vines make better wine.

The Cabernet Sauvignon Case

A similar comparison was made for Cabernet Sauvignon, using vines over 30 years old against vines younger than 5 years old (also from layering). With yields standardized, preliminary data suggested that the old vines produced smaller clusters with fewer berries per bunch. The study also found that millerandage (a condition where berries fail to develop properly) was more pronounced in the young vines.