Old World, New World: A Map for the Curious Wine Drinker

Around 6000 BC, villagers about 30 miles south of present-day Tbilisi, in the Republic of Georgia, were storing something in large clay jars. When scientists analyzed residue from those jars, in research published in 2017, they found tartaric acid, the chemical fingerprint of grapes and wine. It is the earliest known evidence of making wine from grapes.

Europe's wine traditions stretch back well over a thousand years. In the Americas, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, winemaking took root only a few centuries ago. That difference in age is what the terms Old World and New World describe, and they make a handy key to any wine shelf.

Two worlds, two ways of reading a label

Geographically, Old World means Europe, along with other lands where wine culture goes back a very long way. New World means nearly everywhere else that makes wine, including the United States, Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The terms have also become shorthand for style. Old World wines are often described as lighter and more earthy, herbal or mineral; New World wines as riper, fruitier and higher in alcohol. These are broad generalizations, and plenty of producers on both sides cross the line. Treat them as a starting point, not a verdict.

The label is where the two worlds differ most plainly. Old World bottles usually lead with a place, and the place implies the grapes and rules behind it. Chablis is Chardonnay. White Sancerre is Sauvignon Blanc. Barolo is made entirely from Nebbiolo, and Chianti Classico must be at least 80 percent Sangiovese. In the European Union, a wine with a protected designation of origin must be made exclusively from grapes grown in that area.

New World labels usually lead with the grape: Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Mendoza Malbec. In the United States, federal labeling rules say a wine named for a single grape must be at least 75 percent that variety, and a wine labeled with an American Viticultural Area such as Napa Valley must draw at least 85 percent of its grapes from inside that area.

A place name speaks to tradition and terroir; a grape name tells you what is in the bottle. Once you can read both, a wine list gets a lot friendlier.

A quick tour of both worlds

France builds Bordeaux on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Burgundy on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the northern Rhône on Syrah. Sancerre, in the Loire Valley, is a classic source of Sauvignon Blanc, and Champagne makes its sparkling wine with a second fermentation in the bottle.

Italy could fill a lifetime of tasting. Start with Piedmont's Barolo and Barbaresco, both pure Nebbiolo; Tuscany, the home of Sangiovese; and Prosecco, made from the Glera grape.

Spain leans on Tempranillo in Rioja and Ribera del Duero and on Albariño in Rías Baixas. It also makes Cava, a sparkling wine, and Sherry, which is fortified and then aged either under a layer of yeast called flor or in contact with air.

Germany is Riesling country, from the Mosel to the Rheingau and the Pfalz.

Portugal is the home of Port, fortified to stop fermentation partway and made in the Douro Demarcated Region, whose boundaries date to 1756.

The United States offers Cabernet Sauvignon from California's Napa Valley and Pinot Noir from Oregon. The story runs through Ohio, too: in the 1800s, Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati made a highly regarded sparkling wine from Catawba, a grape native to North America.

Argentina belongs to Malbec, and its center of gravity is Mendoza, which makes more than 60 percent of the country's wine. Vineyards in Mendoza's Uco Valley sit roughly 3,000 to 5,200 feet (900 to 1,600 meters) above sea level, where warm days and a wide swing between day and night temperatures let grapes ripen slowly.

Chile runs in a long ribbon between the Andes and the Pacific. Look to the Central Valley and Maipo for Cabernet Sauvignon and to the Casablanca Valley, near the coast, for Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Chile is also the adopted home of Carmenère, a former Bordeaux mainstay that grew there for more than a century mislabeled as Merlot until a French expert identified it in 1994.

Australia is best known for Shiraz, the grape the French call Syrah, from the Barossa and Hunter valleys, and for Riesling from the Clare and Eden valleys.

New Zealand is best known for Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough and for Pinot Noir from Central Otago and Martinborough.

South Africa grows Chenin Blanc across the Western Cape and Cabernet Sauvignon in Stellenbosch, and it has a grape all its own. Pinotage, a cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut bred by Abraham Izak Perold, the University of Stellenbosch's first professor of viticulture, first showed promise in 1925. Its name joins Pinot to Hermitage, the old South African name for Cinsaut.

How climate shapes style

A good part of the stylistic gap between the two worlds comes down to temperature, since many New World regions are warmer. In general, cool climates give wines with more acidity, lighter body, less alcohol and less tannin. Hot climates give more alcohol, fuller body, more tannin and less acidity. Latitude and altitude are the big levers: the closer to the equator, the hotter; the higher up, the cooler. Most of the world's vineyards lie between 30 and 50 degrees of latitude, north and south.

In 1944, University of California researchers Maynard Amerine and Albert Winkler sorted California's grape districts into five regions by adding up heat: for each day from April through October, they counted how far the average temperature rose above 50°F (10°C).

The most memorable way to learn all this is in the glass. Pour small tastes of the same grape from both worlds, side by side, ideally with a friend or two:

• Sauvignon Blanc: a white Sancerre beside a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
• Pinot Noir: a red Burgundy beside an Oregon Pinot Noir.
• Syrah: a Crozes-Hermitage from the northern Rhône beside a Barossa Shiraz.
• Sangiovese: a Chianti Classico beside a California Sangiovese.

Taste them blind if you can, guess which is which, then check the labels. Sometimes climate gives the game away. Sometimes a winemaker half a world away proves you wrong, and that is half the fun.