Wine · Terminology

Blending

Combining different wines — varieties, parcels, vessels or vintages — into the finished article.

Blending is combining separately fermented or matured wines into a final wine. It is far more common than labels suggest: even a single-vineyard, single-variety wine is usually a blend of barrels, tanks or press fractions.

Blending happens along several axes at once — variety (Cabernet with Merlot), parcel (hillside with valley floor), vessel (new oak with steel), press fraction (free-run with press wine) and, in non-vintage sparkling wine, vintage.

In practice

  • Winemakers blend for balance (acid against body), complexity, consistency year to year, and volume at a given price.
  • Blending trials are done in the lab at small scale, then confirmed at tank scale.
  • The French word assemblage refers to the same operation, especially in Bordeaux and Champagne.
  • Legal limits apply: appellation rules cap which varieties, in what proportions, from where.

Where you'll meet it

  • Bordeaux, the archetype of variety blending.
  • Champagne, where non-vintage blends draw on reserve wines from many years.
  • Rhône blends, Port's field blends, and the big commercial brands whose whole promise is that this year tastes like last year.

What blending is for

Goal Example
Balance Merlot's flesh filling the mid-palate gap in Cabernet Sauvignon
Complexity Layering aromatic and structural parcels from the same vineyard
Consistency Champagne NV, built to taste the same every release
Risk management A variety that failed in a wet year replaced by one that didn't
Colour and structure A dash of Petit Verdot or Syrah for depth and grip
Volume Meeting a supermarket order at a fixed price

Blending and the law

  • A varietal wine usually needs 75–85% of the named grape, depending on the market — see varietal.
  • Appellations set permitted varieties and often minimum or maximum percentages; Chianti Classico and Rioja are worked examples.
  • Vintage-labelled wines must contain a stated minimum from that year (85% in the EU, 95% in much of the US).
  • Meritage exists precisely because a Bordeaux blend often fails the varietal minimum.

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