Unless the wine you're drinking is specifically named after a variety of grape—say Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot, or Cabernet sauvignon, to list a few of the possibilities, it's probably a blended wine. All Bordeaux, for instance is a blend; so are Beaujolais, Chianti, and Rhone, not to mention most Champagne, Sherry and Port. Blends are carefully produced by the winery, using one of two basic methodologies; either attempting to keep the flavor as close as possible year to year, and thus essentially using the same percentages of various varietals, or, to produce the best possible wine given the vintages available in a given year. The blend is created before the final aging, and the particular choices in a blend are determined by taste, including nuances like tannin, and color. In some cases, a particular blend is based in part on choosing wines that will age well. A well-crafted blend results in a wine that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Blended wines typically list the grapes used, often even the percentages of each, and usually have "blend" or "blended" on their label. In some cases, the label bears a traditional name known as a blended wine, like Bordeaux, or Chianti, or it may have a more modern, thematic name, like Menage or Byzance. Sometimes the label simply has the name of the winery, and a descriptive label like red or white, or rosé.
French Bordeaux is typically a blend of Cabernet sauvignon and Merlot, but it may also include Cabernet franc, Malbec and Pino verdot, depending on the vintner's impressions of the optimal wines to use. In the U. S. wineries are not required to list the proportions of a blended wine. In the U. S. if a wine is more than 75% of a particular varietal, then that varietal is what goes on the label, even if the remaining 25% comes from two or more wines. Meritage is a term you will only see in the U. S. and almost exclusively with wines from California and Washington; it means that the blend is based on the traditional wines used for French Bordeaux. Other popular combinations are Cabernet sauvignon and Merlot, or Carbernet sauvignon and Syrah. GSM refers to a wine blended from Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvedre; it's inspired by the traditional blend from France's Cotes du Rhone, where the wine is required to be 40% Grenache. Now Washington and California wineries are experimenting, with traditional European style red, white and rose blends as well as engaging in exciting new combinations.
Washington winemaker Brian Carter of Brian Carter Cellars is particularly well known for his ability to create fabulous blends. Carter was named the Vintner of the Year in 2007 by The Auction for Washington Wines named, and he is the only three-time winner of the Enological Society's Grand Prize. Brian Carter Cellars offers five blended wines:
- Oriana, a white wine blend of Roussane, Riesling and Viognie, all from the same Yakima vineyard, all chosen for taste and aroma. You can usually find Oriana at under $25.00 a bottle.
- Tuttorosso, a Sangiovese-based "Super-Tuscan" (that is, a modern blend that does not adhere to the traditional Italian styles, but is nonetheless a robust quality wine) style blend, usually sold for around $30.00, but often on sale at $25.00.
- Byzance, a Southern Rhone style blend of Grenache and Syrah, which, while a very traditional choice, is in this case particularly interesting because all the grapes come from the Outlook vineyard in Washington's Yakima valley.
- Solesce is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. The wine is aged for three years in the bottle before sale, and expected to age well for another ten years. Solesce is, as the winery itself notes, their flagship wine, and runs to around $60.00 a bottle.
- L'Etalon a Bordeaux-style blend of carefully selected Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, all from Outlook, Klipsun, Solstice and Snipes Canyon vineyards from Washington's Yakima valley. I'm looking forward to trying this one with a really good burger, or a steak, frankly. The 2004 is available for under $20.00, if you shop, while the 2005 is in the $30.00 range.
My introduction to Brian Carter Cellars was Abracadabra. It's a lovely blended wine that's lots of fun because, while it uses the same vineyard sources and the wine is aged in the same French oak barrels as the more upscale Brian Carter wines, this wine is blended based on what Brian has in quantity, that strikes his fancy. It's worth trying more than one year, if you can fine previous versions. Abracadabra is deliberately designed to be in the $20.00 range.
Brian Carter is generally considered to be a master vintner, with a gift for blends, but there are also a fair number of "table wine" sorts of blends if you want to experiment until you discover what your personal preferences are— that's exactly how I discovered that I liked reds dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, or Shiraz better than Merlot, for instance. If you're curious, I'd start by looking at the more generic sorts of blends—they tend to wear labels that feature Red, White or Rose, prominently. CMS Hedge Family Estate produces the quite palatable CMS White (Chardonnay, Marsanne, and Sauvignon Blanc) as well as the very traditional CMS Red (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah).
One of the easiest to find is Magnificent's House Red and House White. These are both designed as every day "table wines." House White is predominantly Chardonnay (88%), blended with Riesling (10%), and Muscat Caneli (2%). House Red is almost all Merlot (95%), but the addition of 5% Syrah serves to soften and sweeten the Merlot.
My personal favorite Washington blended wines are the three offered by Columbia Crest: Two Vines Vineyard 10 Red Wine (Syrah, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Barbera, Mouvedre, Dolcetto), Two Vines Vineyard 10 White (Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and "aromatic varieties," which my nose suggests might be Gewürtztraminer) and Two Vines Vineyard 10 Rosé (Syrah and Viognier). These are all enjoyable, and exceedingly affordable, though you may have to hunt a bit for the Rosé.