ALL MIXED UP
Don’t discount wines just because they’re made from blended grapes
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 chance to taste The Prisoner, a red wine from the Napa Valley because it was a blend.
Never mind that it’s an awardwinning 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 per cent of the grape variety named on the label, which means winemakers can use as much as 25 per cent 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 per cent 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 Châteauneuf-du-Pape are classic examples of quality wineproducing areas in France with serious pedigrees that traditionally blend different 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’s enjoyability is not based on what’s written on the label.