The term "villes vignes" is seen on many French bottles and translates roughly to old vine. This refers to the age of the of the vines from which the grapes are picked and is an important piece of information because of the effect that this extra vine maturity can have on the resulting wine. As a vine ages past the 20 year mark a physiological change takes place which causes the vine to produce less fruit. Believe it or not this maturity is to be celebrated as although yields may be smaller, the grapes produced become more concentrated and result in a higher quality wine.