Old World wine

[1] "Old World" can also mean a wine style made for centuries by small winemakers intended to be consumed as a daily beverage to accompany a meal.

These can include which grape varieties to plant, trellising methods, maximum permitted yields, as well as winemaking techniques.

Over time, these traditional practices became enshrined in local regulations such as the French Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), Italian Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC), Spanish Denominación de Origen (DO) and Portuguese Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC) laws.

[2] Terroir is often used to describe the aspects of a wine region such as soil, climate and topography that are often out of the winemaker's control.

[2] Viticulture in most of the Old World wine regions dates back to several hundred or even thousands of years with the Phoenicians, Greeks, Thracians and Romans establishing some of the earliest vineyards.

Over centuries, these Old World wine regions have developed viticultural techniques and practices adapted around their unique climates and landscapes.

[4] One of these exceptions to the Mediterranean origins of Viticultural tradition is in Hungary, whose knowledge of Winemaking came with them from Central Asia.

This can create more tannic and austere wines with more layers of complexity that require longer periods of bottle aging in order to mature.

Old World wines refers to wines that come from regions with a long documented history of wine production
In Old World winemaking, the terroir of a region is of paramount importance with wines from a region, such as Montrachet (pictured) , being labeled with the region's name rather than the grape variety (such as Chardonnay).
In Old World wine making, the role of the winemaker is minimized compared to New World wine making.