Wine myths
Single-varietal wine is purer and better than a blend
“A blend is what you make when the grapes are not good enough to stand alone.”
Most of the world’s most admired wines are blends. Bordeaux, Champagne, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rioja, Port and Vintage Champagne are all blended, and blending is a compositional decision rather than a rescue operation.
The full answer
Blending serves several distinct purposes: balancing structure, achieving complexity a single component cannot reach, insuring against a variety failing in a difficult season, and producing a consistent house style year after year.
The most expensive wines in the world include a great many blends. Bordeaux blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and others; Champagne blends varieties, villages and frequently vintages; Châteauneuf-du-Pape permits thirteen varieties; Port is made from a field of them.
The varietal-labelling convention is largely a New World marketing development from the mid-twentieth century, adopted because a grape name was easier to sell to consumers unfamiliar with European place names. It says nothing about quality.
Even a "single-varietal" wine is very often blended — across parcels, across pressings, across barrels and across fermentation lots. The uniform-single-thing wine is rarer than the label implies.
Something a great many winemakers do. Saying so is a statement about people, not about chemistry, and it carries no implication that the practice is necessary or that alternatives are worse.
What would settle it: A survey of production showing the practice is not in fact common.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) — CIVB
- Comité Champagne — Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne
- WSET educational materials and the Systematic Approach to Tasting — Wine & Spirit Education Trust