[question] Question submitted by Lynette Luo Dan Lin, Singapore. Centuries of blending has helped to create more balance and complexity in wine. How does one choose which to blend with what? Is wine making a work of art or work of science in the laboratory? [/question] [answer] Winemakers can take either of two different approaches to determine which to blend with what. They either can follow the examples of traditionally successful blends around the world, or can think right outside the square to come up with their own creations. The appellation control laws of traditional European countries that tend to prohibit or down-sell new and innovative blends typically hamper Old World winemakers. You cannot, for instance, add shiraz to red Bordeaux, even if you thought it might improve the wine (for whatever reason). In Bordeaux, wine producers are restricted to the five red varieties of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot. Personally, I think this gives them all the flexibility in the world, since these varieties have been shown over the centuries to work very effectively in the region, and provide a first-class means for its premier vineyards to reflect their terroir and typicit̩. Depending on the site, the soils and the climate at their disposal, growers around the world can learn from the combinations of these varieties chosen around the various sub-regions of Bordeaux. The white wines of Bordeaux are made from sauvignon blanc, semillon and muscadelle. The obvious synergy between these varieties has been used as the basis for hundreds of similar New World blends, especially between sauvignon blanc and semillon. Similarly, the success of Clonakilla’s blend of shiraz and viognier, which is unashamedly modelled on the great wines of C̫te-R̫tie, has inspired dozens of Australian makers to experiment with this combination. It won’t necessarily add quality and character to all shiraz, since the shiraz made in certain Australian regions like Great Western or the Hunter Valley does not require any further enhancement of aroma, suppleness or complexity. In the face of this, the incredible success of Italy’s super-Tuscans, a category of wine that is permissible but exists outside the country’s traditional DOCG system, shows that there’s still plenty of merit in developing new wines with imaginative and flexible combinations of different grape varieties. In a region whose traditional reds were principally made from sangiovese, but supported by canaiolo and malvasia, we now see stunning wines like the Sassicaia blend of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, as well as others like Fonterutoli’s ‘Siepi’ blends of merlot and sangiovese. These wines were developed by people who thought outside traditional boundaries. Naturally, such thought processes are easier to implement in wine’s New World. In Australia, for instance, we have people like d’Arenberg’s Chester Osborne, who wanted to try a blend between tempranillo (Spain), grenache (France and Spain) and souzao (a Portuguese port variety), simply because he could. He’d thought it through: wanting to marry the dark, briary and meaty qualities of tempranillo and the more floral, spicy and blueberry-like flavours of grenache with a touch of the raisin, black cherry and licorice-like influences of souzao. As an idea, it’s right out there, but it works, as d’Arenberg’s delicious The Sticks and Stones blend of 2004 amply illustrates. In other words, grape varieties find themselves blended together in different places for different reasons. The principal cause could be either tradition or regulation or, on the other hand, innovation and creativity. At least none of those answers has anything to do with science or laboratories! [/answer]
