There’s nothing inferior about these blended wines
Some myths are hard to shake. Take the lingering misconception that red wines made by blending different grapes are inferior to ones labelled with the name of a single grape variety.
During the recent Gourmet Food & Wine Expo in Toronto, some visitors to the Vines Magazine booth waved away the suggestion to taste The Prisoner, a red wine from the Napa Valley, because it was a blend. Never mind that it’s an award-winning blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Syrah, Zinfandel and more to produce a ripe and flavourful red wine. It was viewed with suspicion — a second-class citizen from Napa.
One woman asked if we had something from Napa that was “just Cabernet Sauvignon” instead.
She was surprised to hear that most wines labelled Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa and everywhere else in California aren’t made with “just Cabernet Sauvignon.”
Winemaking regulations demand that they have a minimum of 75 percent of the grape variety named on the label, which means winemakers can use as much as 25 percent of other grape varieties (typically Merlot, Syrah or Malbec) to alter and enhance the wine’s colour, flavour, smoothness, fragrance or aftertaste.
That’s not only the case in California. Most wine regions allow winemakers to use 15 to 25 percent of different varieties in wines that are labelled with the name of a single grape variety.
Some wine regions in Europe were built on blends. Bordeaux and Châteauneufdu-Pape are classic examples of quality wine-producing areas in France with serious pedigrees that traditionally blend difTHURSDAY, ferent varieties together. Meanwhile, the Chianti Classico region in Tuscany, Italy makes a star of the Sangiovese grape, but it’s seldom bottled without a supporting cast of other indigenous or international grape varieties.
There are red blends that are great and some that aren’t so great just as there are stellar examples of wines labelled Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and less than stellar expressions. Rest assured, wine isn’t enjoyable or not based on what’s written on the label. Email: chris.waters@sunmedia.ca Twitter: @waters_wine