My neighbor has vines more than 100 years old from which he charges up to a $100 a bottle for the wine. Al

Grafted vines right, on rootstocks like: 3309, so4, 101-14?

kokos:

There is no reason that grapes grafted onto a rootstock should be any shorter lived than own-rooted. None that I've heard of anyway. The reason you graft onto a rootstock is because of disease, root pests, or lack of vigor; some kind of a problem. So it stands to reason that if you reduce those problems the vine should live longer.

Grapes that die or need to be taken out at 15-20 years would indicate a severe problem to me. Pierce disease will do that in parts of Texas. In California I'd think many decades would be normal.

I thought so too. My uncle had to be wrong. His phyloxera infested vineyard that is own rooted is slowly dying but it has been going strong for 25 years.