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In a wine store not long ago, a woman showed me a bottle of Pinot Noir she was considering and asked me if it was blended with anything. She knew she wanted Pinot Noir, but she also knew that blended wines aren’t as good as wines that aren’t blended.
She’s not alone in that belief as I hear the question often. Many shelf cards aren’t helpful in clarifying that belief when they stress that a certain bottle is 100% Malbec or Merlot or any other grape for that matter. They seem to suggest that there’s something virtuous about being pure. It just happens that Pinot Noir doesn’t like to be mixed with other grapes. No matter where it comes from, chances are good that a Pinot Noir is 100% Pinot Noir, an unblended red wine.
The same used to be true of Chardonnay. It still is — mostly, but an increasing number of producers are mixing it with other white wine grapes, most notably Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Riesling, and occasionally Sauvignon Blanc.
Are blends really inferior to 100% varietals? Before giving a direct answer, let’s return to Pinot Noir and its dislike of combining. It is one of the base wines in Champagne, where it is combined with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier to form one of the world’s most celebrated wines. Dare we suggest that Champagne is inferior to other wines?
Is a red Burgundy wine better than a red wine from Bordeaux? The wines of Bordeaux owe their fame to the Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape that just loves company in the bottle. The world’s most prized Cabernets are blended with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and sometimes with Malbec. In the Rhone Valley, wines can legally be a blend of thirteen different grape varieties, and the Rhone Rangers of California have become very adept at mixing and matching most of them into their own Rhone-style wines.
Beaujolais lovers would hate to see their beloved Gamay mixed with something else. Alsace and Rheingau Riesling producers insist on 100% grape variety in their bottlings. If they put the grape name on the bottle, the juice is all from that grape.
Most wine regions specify the grapes either authorized or recommended for production in their jurisdictions. In the United States, if a label says Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, then at least 75% of the wine must be from the grape on the label. But then, some 25% can be something else if the producer so desires.
By now it should be obvious that there is no better or worse as far as blending is concerned. Blending is done to assure sweet-sour balance, enhanced character, or richness of flavor. Some grapes blend well and profit from it, while others do not.
Quality, then, is not the issue where blending is concerned. As with most things, it’s a matter of taste.
2 comments
Interesting article! So really, if you buy a blended wine, is it just a matter of preference then rather than inferior/superior quality?
That’s really it, Ava. Some wines are great because they are blended from several grape varieties, others are great because they are not blended! Some grapes require blending to achieve harmony, so never dismiss a wine just because it’s blended or not. (And, of course, just because it’s blended — or not — does not guarantee a good wine. Quality comes from the vineyard, the harvest, and the producer.)