Recently I have engaged in a project to bring into existence a white wine made from several varieties, known as a “white blend.” Blended wines strike fear into the hearts of many, and evoke deep passion from others. To me, these wines are often mis-understood and I wish to express my opinion that blended wines should be considered more readily by commercial buyers and the general public.
The existence of “varietal” wines is itself a fairly recent (“new world”) phenomenon, as the “old world” has preferred for many centuries to market and label its wines by origin as opposed to by grape. Unfortunately, the simple pleasure and idea of marketing a wine by its origin seems to have been largely lost as wine buyers have focused on varieties as a means to categorize their selections and simplify the buying process. In so doing, wine buyers have trained a generation of wine drinkers to seek out “Cabernet Sauvignon” or “Riesling” to the exclusion of wines that cannot carry these labels, even if they contain a large percentage of the same grapes in their blends.
Oddly, this focus on grapes has been directed almost exclusively at “new world” wines, leaving parallel systems of origin and grape competing for attention on some wine lists and serving to obfuscate the fundamental similarities between, for example, Chablis and a Chardonnay.
The categorization of “new world” wines by variety has served a useful role in helping wine drinkers seek out wines with organoleptic characters they find appealing. A wine drinker who enjoys light, crisp white wine may be well-served to associate their taste with Sauvignon Blanc lest they try and are disappointed by a traditional, wooded Chardonnay. This simplistic categorization, however, is reaching the limit of its usefulness in helping wine drinkers discover new tastes and should be superceded by novel and thought-provoking categorizations that assist wine drinkers to explore refreshing, exciting wines, including those made from a variety of different grapes and from a variety of different regions. I challenge wine buyers, sommeliers, and restauranteurs to avoid the well-traveled path of organizing the “new world” wines on their respective lists by grape and embrace novel categories that assist wine drinkers in finding wines that will suit their palates. Maybe it is hoping for too much, but I would also challenge these wine professionals to embrace complexity and ambiguity in their treatment of the artificial “old world” “new world” distinction, although that is itself a topic warranting its own separate discussion.
Sometimes one comes across an overzealous shop owner who has taken this challenge head-on and with perhaps too much emphasis on the novelty of such organization as opposed to its usefulness. We have all been inside the shop with bright, cheerful signs organizing shelves by “fruity!” “crisp” “tasty” etc. This misses the point. Instead, some of the most exciting wine lists I have encountered have been organized, for example, from lightest to heaviest, or by clear concept within regional categories. The criterion for the successful categorization of a wine is the usefulness of the category in helping a wine drinker navigate the wine list or shop shelf. Over-general categories are totalistic, while separating wines by too fine a grain eliminates the possibility of serendipitous and unexpected selections. Every wine professional has a responsibility to make wine an enjoyable beverage that surprises and delights. I believe that thoughtful re-examination of established traditions will reveal the potential for the organization of wine lists and shop shelves to better serve this goal.