By opting to participate in one of the many contentious debates in the world of wine one must either be stark raving mad or be operating from a position of strength. This means one is armed not only with useful, poignant facts but one also possess a passion for their point of view bordering on mania. One such wine debate that has been raging for some time stems from this question: Which types of wines have a better pedigree or better represent a place or a vintage? Single variety wines like, for example, a 100% Shiraz from the Barossa Valley, or a Bordeaux blend from anywhere where they make Bordeaux blends? Or Rhone blends, cuvées, uvaggio(s), etc.

Arguments for the two sides break down like this.

First, there are the purists who aver that wines made from pure varietal are superior because they are indicative of a region, a time, a particular vineyard or estate. Nothing has been added to a pure varietal wine to distract the taster or to hide a flaw or defect. It is, in effect, the essence of a place and a moment in time and the only “pure” wine available. An example of such a wine is a Napa Valley, California Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernets from the Napa Valley, to single out a famous variety from a famous region, have a powerful tannic grip, are generally robust, full-bodied and capable of staining tooth enamel at 20 paces. When in the presence of one of these wines, or the aforementioned Shiraz, a Burgundian Pinto Noir, a German Riesling, to name a few famous single varietal homes, there is no mistaking it for anything else. The purists like that. 

The blenders believe the opposite of everything the purists believe. Blenders are certain that a blended wine is superior because blending enables wine makers to showcase a region’s strengths and it allows producers to be rid of less pleasant flavors and flaws. Blending also affords a producer the choice of making wines to drink today or to make wines with the potential of greater ageablity. Blenders are not the sorts to gravitate toward an astringent, walnut skins steeped in black tea kind of wine. Blenders also embrace the idea that a mixture produces a wholly new and unique flavor.

Before you forsake your purist opponent, desert your blender partner or demand that your indifferent spouse takes your side, let it be known that in this debate both sides are delightfully correct and that it’s time to put aside all differences.

Pure varietal wines are more a modern development and are a byproduct of rigorous observation and improved science. The blenders would do well to be more appreciative of their purist counterparts. Because of their hard work and record keeping the purists have done over the years wine makers who blend their Shiraz in Australia can do so with confidence because the purist French of the northern Rhone who concentrated their efforts on their beloved Syrah. Chardonnay producers the world over, who now blend this noble white (why they do this is a matter for another debate) can tip their hats to the Chablisian who know this varietal inside and out.

Blended wines have been likely been around longer than single variety wines. Many (perhaps all?) of the first wines made were blends only because many of the vineyards of old, and not so old, were, and still are, planted by farmers who had little idea or much care about what they planted. Their only concern was yield since wield meant more wine. Throughout Europe one can still easily find vineyards planted with a jumble of different grapes usually with uniquely mutated/clonal offspring.

Through the centuries it has been the European businessman/farmer sensibility that has determined the course of wine making and shaped blending practices. Blending became common mainly because there was the need to use what as at hand and to “stretch” vintages in times of lean harvests, as was the case in the Chianti region where small percentages of white wine (malvasia) were added to Sangiovese or in the Rhone where Viognier is still added to Syrah.

Ultimately, pure varietal and blended wines are the result of the same thing: knowledge. Growers in Bordeaux discovered long ago what grapes grew the best and produced the most distinctive and marvelous wines when blended, just as producers in Burgundy realized that Pinot Noir was the one and only, in Argentina they understood it was Malbec, the Aussies discovered it was Shiraz, and so on.

Wine as we know it today wouldn’t be as interesting, complex and delicious if it weren’t for the purists and the blenders.