Bordeaux Blends… From South Africa!?
How is it possible that South Africa can produce ‘Bordeaux blends’? For one thing, Bordeaux lies 8972 km north of the Cape Winelands! The reason, of course, is that red blends from Bordeaux are so stylistically distinctive that they have become the benchmark of red blends the world over.
I find this broad method of wine classification somewhat ironic. In the world of wine there is considerable focus on ‘terrior’ and any South African wine referred to as a Bordeaux blend is immediately stripped of its unique terrior.
I believe in order to protect the characteristic nature of South African wines we need to maintain our integrity, by referring to South African red blends according to their true origin. Am I just being pedantic, or are there other wino’s out there that have a similar opinion?
Cheers!
Brandon Marc
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Surely the term ‘Bordeaux blend’ is used as shorthand to decribe a wine made from the Bordeaux varieties, as is ‘Rhone blend’. I think underlying that is perhaps a suggestion that the wine should be in a similar taste profile, but then it would be if the grape varieties are the same.
The problem with using these descriptors is that they are unofficial (and cannot be used on the label in countries with bi-lateral agreements with the EU or for export to the EU), which is why the Americans cleverly came up with their own descriptor ‘Meritage’ for a wine made from a blend of Bdx varieties.
I don’t agree with you that “red blends from Bordeaux are so stylistically distinctive that they have become the benchmark of red blends the world over”, only the benchmark for blends made of the same varieties.
The debacle about ‘Cape Blend’ indicates how difficult it will be to get any agreement on any alternate name for Bdx or Rhone blends.