Meritage Blends
Around the mid 80's a style of wine being made in California and elsewhere was starting to create some concern to the traditional French wine producing region of Bordeaux. As Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot were starting to show up in the new world markets and Winery's publicly stating and labeling these wines as "Bordeaux Red" wines. The concern was founded.
In 1988 a organization was formed in California. The Meritage Association, by a small group of Napa winemakers. This organization was formed primarily as a way to get past the U.S. Federal laws stipulating that wines containing 75% of any single grape variety must be labeled that variety. This was a problem for California winemakers, whom were blending Bordeaux style wines with, at times 75% of a single grape, such as Merlot, but did not want to label the wine as a Merlot, due to the other grapes being blended into the finished wine.
As more and more winemakers were interested in making Bordeaux blend style wines, which of course failed to reach single varietal status, a name was created for the consumer to recognize. A contest was put on by the Association to create a name for this style of wine and after over 6000 entires, Meritage was chosen as the name. A combination of Merit and Heritage.
from the beginning in 1988 to 1999 the Association attracted 22 member wineries in California and a few in other areas. Within the next 10 year period, there had been massive growth, including a name change to the Meritage Alliance. There are currently well over 250 wineries committed to making sure that the customer knows that the wines are a Bordeaux style blend under the Meritage name, and now after 20 years, appreciate the wines more then ever. Hence most of the Meritage labeled wines are quite expensive and exclusive.
Today, there is a resurgence of blended wines within the 'New World', which I believe can be attributed to the success of the Meritage movement. Some of the most exciting wines coming from the popular New World regions are in fact, blends. Of course not all are strict Bordeaux style blends, but all in all, a high quality blend never the less.
It is exciting to have these blended wines starting to take hold in the market, as the wine can really reflect the winemaker more then ever. Of course the winemaker must tend to the vineyards and grow the best possible grape, but then the real measure comes from his/her blending skill and pallet. Exciting indeed!
I personally find single variety wines rather boring and uncomplicated. Yes, it is always nice to taste what a single vineyard or grape can produce, but to me it is like a component tasting, once you understand what a single grape tastes like, now the challenge is tasting one from another area or vineyard and comparing the two. Not my cup of tea ;)
I for one, really like to taste what a winemaker has created from the grapes he has available to him, the structure and flavors of the blend can be very interesting and challenging. This to me is what wine is all about. Ah Blends! Thanks Meritage Alliance, I for one very much appreciate what you bring to the table.
LEFT BANK, RIGHT BANK! Oh what do I do?
For most of you, I think you understand the difference, so I'm not going to get to far into the whole left bank/right bank thing, but to simplify, The Right Bank is Merlot driven blending and the Left Bank is Cabernet Sauvignon driven blending. I will let you do your own research on that whole Bordeaux bank thing.
What I would like to go into a little is, New World winemakers are starting to utilize this terminology to describe a Bordeaux blend style wine, without going to the "Meritage" designation and licensing. Many winemakers are forgoing the 'designation' process of calling their wines Meritage and now coining a phraseology relating to the Bordeaux's different regions based on the geographical location.
Is this new? Kind of. You are seeing more and more of it on labels and it is also being used to describe a style of blend by the wine trade and media. IS this important? I think yes.
I believe that the general wine drinking public really does not know or care about such phrasing, mainly because they are not educated in the Bordeaux geography and how it relates to the grape varieties in the bottle. Of course there are exceptions, but with the newer generation of wine drinkers that have been raised on single varietal wines from the beginning, they really have no knowledge or appreciation for Bordeaux wines, due to their expense and lack of consumer friendly packaging.
Many French Winemakers and negotiants have tried to create packaging that relates to the current wine buying public, (ie. Fat Bastard). Even the old standard, Piat D'or, had to revamp it's packaging completely, to move their wines forward to a more educated wine buyer. In fact when the French firm relaunched the brand back in 2001, they went so far as to take away any "French" wording and language from the packaging to be sure that the world's new wine drinking youth understood it NOT to be french. Remarkable! Has it worked?
Bordeaux related terminology for a style of wine is making some in roads though. For instance, Washington state has a number of wineries that use this terminology to relate to the style of blend.
Take for instance today's feature wine from Gilbert Cellars, this 'Left Bank' style blend is just that, a classic Left Bank blend, and is called such. Cabernet driven blend with all the traditional Bordeaux varieties blended into the bottle, all grown in Washington.
These styles of blended wines, I think are going to be the next big thing. Meritage designated wines are already overtaking Pinot Noir in popularity according to California winemakers. Along with Rhone style blends and a multitude of white blends, I think we are soon going to be back to enjoying "Red Wine" and "White Wine" from these great winemakers, and they in turn will give us all something to talk about. But that's just me opinion ;)
Cheers
Rome
| 
