Blended wine: what’s the big deal?

Even for the biggest wine geek the morass of bottles available in today’s supermarkets can be overwhelming. Fifty thousand or so different brands hailing from every corner of the wine world line the shelves. We look for recognisable words or symbols on the labels to help us make our choice.

One such worded that might raise alarm bells is “blended wine”. Why would a winemaker take what should be perfectly good juice from one grape and mix it with another? Are they trying to hide something?

Since the earliest days, blending of different grape varieties has been part of the fabric of wine making in multiple regions of the wine world. The most recognisable example of this comes from our nearest neighbour France. Not only do the “Chef de Cave” of Champagne blend three different grape varieties together, but they also blend juice from over a hundred different vineyards, as well as older vintages of that same wine, to create their final Cuvée.

Producers in the New World are at it too. Grange, the celebrated Australian wine from Penfolds, is also a multi-site, multi-region blends of predominantly the Shiraz grape. In fact, you will find high quality, respected wines that incorporate a number of grape varieties in the bottle from almost all of the established producing nations; so why do they blend?

Every variety of grape has its own unique flavour profile, manifesting different levels of fruit, acidity and tannin. The soil the plant grows in will influence the nutrients and flavours the fruit demonstrates too. And wine is a reflection of a specific season, the temperatures and the hydration the fruit experiences in the growing cycle influence flavour. Simply put, if the sun shines lots one year and less the next, the grapes will display a marked difference in the naturally produced sugars and therefor a variation in the flavour of the finished product.

Blending is principally a method to maximise the colour, flavour and textural qualities of the component parts. Take Bordeaux for example; the fleshy, juiciness of the Merlot coupled with the tannic more structurally acidic Cabernet Sauvignon makes for a wonderful power balance – wines that are elegant, tasty and have the ability to age well. Depending on the vintage, fine tuning tweaks often come in the form of small additions of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot or Carménère depending on how the winemaker wishes the final product to taste.

So, while the sharp practice of adulterating low-quality liquids by less than scrupulous manufacturers does unfortunately occasionally happen, regard the art of blending as a highly skilled part of the wine world.

My pick of some beautiful red blends –

Good: Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet, Australia @£9.00 from Tesco.com 

Better: Chateau Brande Bergere, AOC Bordeaux Superieur @ £11.50 from Inverarity Morton 

Best: Almaviva, Baron Phillipe de Rothschild-Concha y Toro, Maipo, Chile @ £115 from Berry Bros & Rudd