Daniel Bruce in his restaurant, Meritage
Earlier this year I was speaking to many of the winemakers who are in the lineup for this winter’s Boston Wine Festival at the Boston Harbor Hotel. During one of these conversations, it occurred to me that there seems to be a growing trend, one that has been gaining momentum in the past few years. Not only are American vintners making more blends in general, but they are also adding small amounts of little-known (at least to many Americans) traditional blending grapes such as Tannat, Cinsaut and Carignan, along with more mainstream varietals, to our well known Cabernets, Merlots and such.
Americans—both consumers and winemakers— have been varietal-focused for many years. The majority of the wines we consume are labeled by varietals: Cabs, Pinots, Merlots. There have been a few California winemakers, such as Sean Thackrey and Manfred Krankl at Sine Qua Non, who have been blending some percentage of nontraditional grape varietals for years. Of course the well-known Zin producers such as Ravenswood and Ridge Vineyards have co-fermenting field blends and have established strong reputations for their quality and sense of place. There seems to be more experimentation in California today, which is leading to some interesting results. I believe that we are an evolving wine-consuming nation. We are interested in trying new blends and are fast becoming more sophisticated in our palate, which has also supported this new development. The right amount of an unusual varietal can add a subtlety, a layer that would be impossible to achieve otherwise.
Many grapes introduced to the New World have “Winemakers are like chefs, taken on completely new characteristics, which has helped spur this recent trend. Malbec, planted in abundance in the Cahors region of France, is primarily a blending grape in France. When introduced to Argentina it developed an entirely new expression. Tannat is another example: It has been the hot grape in Uruguay for a while. It’s an Old World grape, from the Basque area of France. There it has a high tannin level and is used primarily for blending in Madiran. Those tannins help a wine age well, adding to its collectibility. When Tannat was first imported to South America, it grew so well that it was planted in quantity. Because of soil and climate it developed a different flavor— fruitier, with more raspberry—and has become a varietal in its own right. Now, in California, vineyards are planting it and blending it with Cabernet as well as Merlot to give those wines more body and structure. You’ll see it in wines in the central coast, from Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles to Lodi and up into Oregon. When added to Cabernet, Tannat provides a more chocolaty mouthfeel and darker, richer color.
Part of the challenge and excitement of blends is that some of these new wines are field blends—different varietals planted in the same vineyard, picked and crushed all together. This is risky, because you have less control over how the wine will taste. Now winemakers are more scientific about it. Rather than picking and co-fermenting, they are harvesting the grapes as they ripen from different fields, giving the winemaker the ability control the process. Winemakers are like chefs in this sense, using grapes like spices to enhance their product. They’re excited to share the results with one another and define themselves by their terroir and the nuances in each wine.
