Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2003 4:43 pm
SueNZ wrote:Re blends
If the producer makes a blend, why doesn't he/she/they label it as such? We are so pretentious sometimes, in that pinot noir has to be pinot noir, etc, and any addition is looked upon with disdain. If blends are being made and if the wine is good, then the producer could be a hero for revealing it and we could be saying, 'Wow, clever guy, that makes a mighty nice drink. Why don't more people do this?'.
I remember a delicious Sauvignon Blanc from one of NZ's cult producers (not known for savvy), when I asked him he revealed to me it had the maxiumum allowable amount of chardonnay in it, not mentioned at all on the label. It was the style of savvy for non savvy drinkers.
Hi Sue, some suggestions.
Marketing and wine style protection can dictate what goes on the label. Wine blends like cabernet merlot and semillon sauvignon blanc are generic styles. They have consumer awareness and their own category in the big retailers. Other ‘unrecognised’ blends can be harder to sell.
Also, some producers may prefer to keep their 15% blending decisions to themselves if they feel it gives them an edge. Chardonnay in sav blanc is nothing new to sav blanc producers – especially in the less ripe years.
Once something becomes trendy (viognier, pinot gris, petit verdot) producers are more willing to place the names on the label.
You may also find in some circumstances a labelled sem sav blanc that is a 95/5 blend, particularly if sav blanc is in short supply. Selling wine labelled sem sav is a whole lot easier than selling wine labelled semillon.
Certainly the well-known blends have earned their status because they worked well together to begin with.
SueNZ wrote:Most of the multi-country blends in NZ are labelled as such with "Produce of NZ, Aus, Chile, France, Argentina, South Africa and Spain' - well I am still waiting for that particular one but some have 3 or 4 countries stated on the label, albeit sometimes in such fine print that it could almost not be there. The worst are when you have to hold the bottle in a certain light to see some of the wording. Some are really misleading to the consumer.
Print size requirements on Aus labels have been relaxed recently (they used to be quite rigid). Legibility is still desired for mandatory information but how it is measured is anybody’s guess.
Cheers, brad
