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It's now over four decades since Robert Mondavi began popularizing the notion of drinking varietal wine, striking a blow for simplicity in wine consumption.
Mondavi and a handful of New World contemporaries focused on a series of single grape varieties, catapulting "varietal wine" to near cult status in wine stores across the nation.
It wasn't only America that was busy searching for the flavour of the month. Australia, Spain, Chile, Italy, South Africa, Portugal, and more recently Canada, have all had their moments. In fact, each has played an important role in tinkering with the style of wine we all drink today.
But there's more to wine than simply solo grape offerings and with the economy in the dumper, perhaps blended reds are the answer to our quest for affordable, quality wines. Maybe we should think of them as the "crock pot" alternative to the single varietal stew we have been drinking.
The art of blending is hardly new. It has been around for centuries, inspired no doubt by the first European grower to lose an entire crop of merlot, cabernet sauvignon or syrah to some unforeseen natural disaster.
Today modern wine growers turn to blends to reduce that risk and, in many cases, make a wine that is superior to its mono-varietal cousins. Blending can increase complexity and balance and, more practically, cover up faults as they relate to individual grapes or vintages.
One such blend or variation enjoying a great deal of success in this market is the syrah/grenache or the grenache/syrah blend, often mixed with mourvèdre or mataro and a handful of other lesser grapes including carignan, and cinsault.
There is a certain synergy between syrah and grenache. The rich, spicy, meaty, bold syrah is often tempered by the super fruity, fleshy, grenache when it is young. Conversely, as the wine ages the syrah helps to suppress the tendencies of grenache to maderize, or turn brown, and age prematurely. Blending -- it's a style of wine worth discovering in 2009.
The second edition of Chat-en-Oeuf Côtes du Ventoux 2006, a popular grenache-syrah blend made by the wizards of Boutinot, comes with a floral, grapey, cherry nose streaked with pepper, licorice root and incense. It is soft, round, supple and dry with raspberry, more licorice and cedar, mineral, coffee flavours. A solid red for barbecued meat.
Slightly higher in the French system of classification is the Perrin et Fils Rasteau Côtes du Rhône Villages L'Andeol 2005 with its peppery, plum, cough-syrup-menthol aromas. Expect an elegant, balanced palate with good concentration and light tannins and licorice, plum, black cherry, floral, minty, orange flavours. Its finish is a bit young and warm, but this will improve with a splash decant or an extra year or two in bottle. Solid.
Domaine de l'Auster Mosaïque Faugères 2005 is made from vines grown at an elevation of just under 1,000 feet on soils of schist and marble in the Coteaux du Languedoc. We love the attractive raspberry and red-fruit aromas with its touch of animal from this 40/30/40 blend of syrah, grenache and carignan. The textures are particularly smooth and glossy with spice, licorice, cocoa and black-cherry fruit and a fresh, balanced finish. Impressive red wine for Europhiles and food wine lovers.
Jean-Luc Colombo made his name in the Northern Rhone in rarefied air of the Cornas appellation, but his négociant/consultant business has taken him about the Rhone and Southern France. Look for bright floral, cherry, orange, mineral, smoky resin aromas on the nose of the Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone Rouge Les Abeilles 2005 -- a grenache, shiraz mourvèdre blend. The entry is dry and supple, making it an easy sipping, smoky, orange peel, licorice, cherry, chocolate-flavoured red.
At $30, I'm knocked out by the value you will discover in the Rolf Binder Heinrich Shiraz - Mataro - Grenache 2006 -- a 55/25/20 blend from the Barossa Valley. The nose is overt, showing black cherry jam, plum, floral, orange rind and plenty of minerality, flecked with bits of tobacco, vanilla, coffee, pepper and earth. Fine complexity. The entry is supple, the styling elegant with a warm, fresh edge. The flavours, a mix orange peels, pepper, coffee, mocha, licorice and black raspberry and tobacco, swarm the palate.
Our last pick is one of the strangest looking bottles in the store. Irregular in shape and covered with fake grit and dust, it would be kitsch before its time if it wasn't so timeless. Père Anselme La Fiole du Pape Châteauneuf-du-Pape N/V opens with a whack of floral, peppery fruit notes with bits of roasted meat and cherries. The entry is smooth and supple with more spicy, licorice, chocolate, plum, mineral, tobacco flavours. A good solid effort that will improve with a year or two in bottle.
RHONE
Price: $14
UPC: 3430560001419
Score: 86/100
Remarks: Good, solid red for barbecued meat. Ready to drink now.
Perrin et Fils Rasteau Côtes du Rhône Villages L'Andeol 2005, Rhone Valley, France
Price: $22
UPC: 00631470003019
Score: 88/100
Remarks: Rich, young and warm with some tannin to shed. Very solid.
Domaine de l'Auster Mosaïque Faugères 2005, Coteaux du Languedoc, France
Price: $18
UPC: 03395941408488
Score: 88/100
Remarks: Particularly smooth and glossy with spice, licorice, cocoa and black-cherry fruit.
Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone Rouge Les Abeilles 2005, Rhône Valley, France
Price: $19.95
UPC: 3760026100050
Score: 87/100
Remarks: Fresh, forward style for current consumption.
Rolf Binder Heinrich Shiraz Mataro Grenache 2006, Barossa Valley, South Australia
Price: $30
UPC: 09333362000014
Score: 92/100
Remarks: Supple styling with pepper, coffee, mocha, licorice, black-raspberry flavours.
Père Anselme La Fiole du Pape Châteauneuf-du-Pape N/V, Rhone Valley, France
Price: $35
UPC: 03217661012519
Score: 89/100
Remarks: The classic lamb wine.
