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Single varietal or blend

Why so many of the world’s most admired wines are blends, and why varietal labelling is a marketing convention rather than a quality tier.

The short answer

Blending is a compositional decision, not a rescue operation. Bordeaux, Champagne, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Rioja and Port are all blends. Varietal labelling is a twentieth-century convention adopted because a grape name sells more easily than a place name.

Overview

The assumption that a single variety is purer runs deep, and it is close to the opposite of how the fine wine world actually operates.

It is also worth knowing that "varietal" wines are frequently blends in every sense except the grape: across parcels, pressings, barrels and lots.

How it works

The mechanism, at the scope it has actually been established.

Blending serves distinct purposes. Balance: one variety supplies structure, another aromatics, another colour. Complexity: a combination can offer more than any component. Insurance: if one variety fails in a difficult season, the others carry the wine. Consistency: a house style maintained across vintages, which is what non-vintage Champagne is for.

Legal minimums for varietal labelling differ. EU rules generally require 85% for a single named variety; US federal rules generally require 75%, with some states setting higher.

A "single-varietal" wine may therefore legally contain a substantial minority of something else, unnamed.

Field blends are a distinct and older practice: mixed varieties interplanted and picked and fermented together, rather than blended after fermentation.

What people get wrong

1 widely repeated claim this page corrects.

Not true

“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.

Sources

Sources consulted

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Fermenting grape juice in contact with the skins, which is where colour and tannin come from.

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