Do you feel daunted when you don’t see the name of the grape variety on the label of a bottle of wine? It’s become so commonplace that it may be the first thing you look for, but the truth is, many of the wines with which you may be most familiar, including bordeaux, côtes du rhône and rioja, are made from more than one variety.
Blends have many advantages. Just as with a recipe for a dish, a winemaker can combine different components to make a more harmoniously satisfying whole. And if it’s a bad year for one variety, say, you can simply bump up another. This is particularly true of bordeaux, where the proportions of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc habitually vary depending on the weather. Other varieties that are natural bedfellows are sauvignon blanc and semillon, which you find in sauternes and white bordeaux, Rhône varietals grenache, syrah and mourvèdre (otherwise known as GSM, especially in Australia); and chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, the usual triumvirate of varieties found in champagne and similar sparkling wines. Even wines that appear to be made from one variety may include only 85% of it (or 75% in the US). Even a small amount of another variety can make a significant difference, especially in the case of headily aromatic muscat, or moscato, which needs the addition of only a few percent to give the wine an exotically perfumed lift.
But blending doesn’t end there. Even wines that are genuinely 100% from a particular grape, as with chardonnay and pinot noir in Burgundy, have different components. They may, and often do, come from different vineyards, from vines of different ages or from grapes picked at different times. Then they’ll be given different treatment in the winery – aged in different types of wood, with varying levels of toast or charring, different-sized barrels or with no oak at all: it’s all about getting the best of what the vintage gives you – preserving freshness in a hot vintage, richness and body in a cooler one and, in the case of mass-produced wines, achieving consistency, which is the holy grail for big brands that want your experience of drinking them to be as reliable as cornflakes. The truth is that practically every wine is a blend of some sort, so they’re in no way a second-best option.
By the way, if you fancy trying your hand at blending your own, the tasting and events company Honest Grapes sells “Taste Lab” kits that enable you to experiment with combining the three main bordeaux grape varieties in different proportions. That would make for a fun evening, or a good birthday present for a hard-to-please wine lover.
Five wines that benefit from being a blend
Château Canada Bordeaux Supérieur 2019 £8.50 The Wine Society, 13.5%. This classic bordeaux blend of merlot and cabernet sauvignon produces an attractive, old-school claret at a very reasonable price. One for the Sunday roast.
Pierre Jaurant Méditerranée Rosé 2021 £5.49 Aldi, 12.5%. A typical southern French rosé, fresh and citrussy with delicate strawberry fruit. Mainly grenache, caladoc and merlot, plus five other indigenous grapes. It’s still a bit soon for a swimming pool rosé, but that’s basically what this is.
Houghton Heritage White 2022 £11.99 Waitrose and Waitrose Cellar (currently 25% off six bottles), 12.5%. Deliciously fruity, chenin-based blend with touches of citrus, melon and passionfruit. Also includes chardonnay, muscadel, verdelho and pinot grigio. A good bottle for Mother’s Day.
Barossa Boy Little Tacker 2018 £19.95 Corney & Barrow, £20 Hic!, 14%. Sumptuous, lush and unmistakably Aussie - a great example of the natural synchronicity of GSM aka grenache, syrah and mourvèdre.
Poggio Baddiola 2019 £11 selected Co-ops, 13%. Elegant, smooth, super-Tuscan red blending native sangiovese with merlot and petit verdot. Would be great with Italian-style roast lamb with garlic and rosemary.
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