B L E N D S:

A Holiday Wine Feast

What is the deal with blends? It’s literally the most often question we get as wine nerds from dear muggles. Like so many wine questions, it's complicated! 

One might first ask - why blend at all? There’s a big difference between grape varietals in terms of the characteristics they might develop in a resulting wine. Things get even broader when you compare, say, a Pinot Noir from a limestone vs. volcanic soil vineyard, or Syrah from a hot vs. cool growing region.  If you like or don’t like something, why not just stick to similar varietals? Well, variety is the spice of life, baby! And the world is a wine connoisseur's oyster in terms of possible combinations to try or winemaker’s to experiment. The difference between single-varietal wines is they offer more specific taste profiles with a strongly defined features that serves as an identity and perhaps more peaks and valleys in the experience, whereas blends are made in a well-rounded style with more generalized bouquet of flavors and aromas.

Further, historical tradition, and climate have a role to play. Until about 100 years ago, nobody gave a poop about the varietal composition in whatever wine they were drinking. Most wines were field blends of whatever a vineyard grew, and were all tossed in a vessel and co-fermented together. Wines were often not white nor red, but more of a pinkish/orangey or brown. Brown wine? People gulped it up.  It went on like this for thousands of years. It’s why, particularly in the old world, wines are identifiable by where they are from, not what’s in them. Chianti, Chablis, or Rioja! You wouldn’t even ask what’s in them, or care that they were Sangiovese, Chardonnay, and Tempranillo, respectively. It's why producers of those wines today, for the most part, wouldn’t put the varietal listed on the label. 

Similarly, there are famous locations that are almost always blends - Bordeaux, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Champagne to name a few. These places wouldn’t be caught dead advertising their varietal composition on the labels (although back labels might when imported to the US.) Champagne takes things a step further by blending different vintages together so year after year they bang out a quality product from one of the world’s most Northerly (and unpredictable) wine regions. Nowadays this info can also be found online a lot of the time, or on tech sheets provided so generously by our wine reps. Because we like to get nerdy, we look at these all the time anyway. The point is that these places have long standing traditions of blending and  understanding their grapes in composition. Bordeaux is a great example - the two main varietals are often Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. These two grapes augment each other’s strengths and fill in their weaknesses. If a Bordeaux wine was a sofa, the Cab would be the frame exhibiting tannic structure in droves, while plush and juicy Merlot would be the cushions. Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and others in lower quantities make up the patterns and colors.

That said, here in the New World, we do our own thing. We have coerced the rest of the world into caring if that white is of Riesling or Gewurztraminer. The bombastic American economic juggernaut demands it. It was here that experiments in robust blending, conducted through tasting trials by winemakers really took off. The better quality blends you might see varietal composition listed. This shows the winemaker had an idea and saw it through with a creative AND scientific process. If the blend composition is not listed, it could signify that the winemaker had a lot of a little wine left over from various lots and didn’t want to waste it. So, they blended it together and hoped to make a few bags of dough. It could also mean that they have a proprietary blend and don't want to share it with their competition. It could also mean that they made a really bomb-ass wine and they don’t think it matters what’s in it. It could also mean that they made a really shitty wine and they don't think it matters what's in it. 

How do you make sense of this? For us, the more important information on the label is who the producer is, who the importer/distributor is, and if they have a PDO - Protected Designation of Origin, or appellation.  But of course, learning all that requires rigor and interest and didn’t you sign up for a wine club that does the sifting for you? (You did!) But then again, some of our favorite wines don’t have these either, and are made by renegade producers who don’t want to follow the rules of their own PDO. In other words, a better indicator of quality is other information on the label, than whatever the make-up of the blend might be. That’s what we’re here for! 

A word you might encounter is Cuvée, which can also be a term synonymous with “blend.” There’s no legal definition in either the U.S. or France and cuvée can stand in for any kind of combination in wine—vineyards, vintages or varieties. The goal for most winemakers is to create a blend, or cuvée, whose sum is greater than its component parts. The process of blending can be one of the most important parts of winemaking. You might have an amazing Pinot Noir from an A+ lot, but maybe there’s a barrel made only from whole cluster or from a different clone, a warmer vineyard site, etc.  A winemaker might conduct a trial to add 5%, 10%, or 50% to the main lot - perhaps that will  round it out, add something extra, lift the aromatic profile, make it even better. You would be surprised by how 5% of something different to a base wine can fundamentally change its character. Another way to think about it is musically - an orchestra is always better than any one of the individual instruments playing the same tune. Thoughtful blends can make amazing wines. 

Explore different types of blends in this fabulous food-friendly release - 6 wines from 5 countries, perfect pairings for the holiday table.