One of my favorite winemakers is Vincent Arroyo, whose winery is in Calistoga, at the north end of Napa Valley in California. He recently introduced a wine he calls Melange Blanc, which, as you might guess, is a white blend. I am pretty sure he’s having fun with his customers; the Merriam-Webster definition of “mélange” is “a mixture of often incongruous elements.” This particular wine is 50% chardonnay and 50% sauvignon blanc, which a cynic might say manages to take away the oakiness of the chardonnay and the tartness of the sauvignon blanc at the same time.
But it did make me curious about the notion of blending wines, and it turns out that red blends are now the second most popular type of red wine sold in the U.S. (behind cabernet sauvignon). And you don’t have to look hard to find them: Bordeaux wines are perhaps the best-known blends, usually with either merlot or cabernet grapes dominating. And there are others, too, for example:
- Chianti, a very popular Italian wine, is typically a blend of Sangiovese with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and/or an Italian grape called canniolo.
- Super Tuscan, another Italian wine, is a blend that disobeys Tuscan wine standards by using more than a single grape.
- Rioja is a Spanish wine that must contain 75% tempranillo and uses other red grapes grown locally.
The older, traditional wineries in France and Italy typically began production with single-grape wines. Beginning around the 19th century, winemakers, being both clever and efficient, needed to find use for their end-of-season grapes that weren’t abundant enough to bottle grape by grape. Voila! Let’s mix them together and rebrand them.
That is, of course, a simplified version of the birth of Bordeaux wines, and today blending grapes is a sophisticated science. But it also is a kind of art – you know, different palates and all. Wine experts will tell you that red blends are ideal for serving with rich entrees and especially with red meats; they complement rather than overpower.
But I will leave it to Vincent Arroyo for the best solution. Each fall, he experiments with several different red blends, places them in separate dog bowls and has his dog, J.J., taste them all. The blend that J.J. likes the most is bottled and sold as J.J.’s Blend. And I can attest that J.J.’s palate is at least as sophisticated as many wine judges’.
Cheers!
-Submitted by Bill Good
(Image credit: Pixabay.com, Vinepair.com and Freepix.com)