Whats the difference between a varietal (named grape) wine and a blended wine?
Wine can be made with one or several grape varieties. Bordeaux red wines, for instance, are often made with a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes. This information is not always available on the label and many ‘traditional’ European wines never show these details. However, a varietal wine is a fairly new concept which makes a positive virtue out of mentioning the grape variety. Starting in Alsace, France, with wines made from Riesling or Muscat, then Muscadet was an early example of a wine labelled by its grape type rather than its style. In the 1970s, wine drinkers could buy ‘Chablis’ not only from the French region of that name, but also from Spain, South Africa or California. Today, these traditional names are protected, and instead wines are labelled ‘varietally’ – according to the grape type. This is how Chardonnay took over the world, and now red varietals like Merlot and Shiraz have done the same.
