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The art of the Bordeaux blend

 

 

Mark Pardoe MW, Wine Director
Published: 16th May 2024

FIVE-MINUTE READ

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Blending is at the heart of Bordeaux wine, says Mark Pardoe MW. Here, our Wine Director puts the Bordeaux blend under the microscope.

Bordeaux is defined by the blending skills of its winemakers, honed over centuries of experience dealing with marginal climates, a great complexity and variety of soils and many grape varieties. The Bordelais have been doing it this way for centuries. The term “Bordeaux blend”, meaning principally a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, is now a shorthand description the world over.

 

01: Mark Pardoe MW tasting an unblended sample among the vines at Ch. Léoville Barton

02: The vat room chez Barton

 

Historically, the Bordelais have needed to blend because of the varying results each grape variety may produce. This is linked to the geological complexity of the region, and its sometimes-challenging weather conditions. The two key varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which tend to dominate respectively on Bordeaux’s Left and Right Banks. The former has large deposits of gravel, the latter a wide variety of sand, limestone and clay with some gravel.

 

Cabernet Sauvignon adapts beautifully to gravel soils. But, as a late-ripening variety, it can sometimes have a firm, over-tannic edge. Blending with the softer, juicier Merlot helps to give the wine balance.

There are a few iconoclasts who produce 100% Cabernet Sauvignon; indeed, the late Paul Pontallier of Château Margaux once confided he would make a wine from only Cabernet Sauvignon if he could. But even he had to admit that his wine was better balanced by the addition of some Merlot.

The other components for Left Bank blends are Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Carmenère and Malbec. Each can add a further dimension to the final blend, whether it is fruit, colour, structure or perfume.

Conversely, on the Right Bank the colder clay and limestone soils help to control the earlier-maturing vigour of Merlot. It should be said, however, that until the brutal frosts in the winter of 1956, Cabernet Franc was the dominant variety for the Right Bank’s best wines. Merlot was usually chosen when replanting after the frosts, for the ease and speed of growth of the new vines – and the large potential crops.

 

03: Ch. Canon’s Nicolas Audebert with a hands-on demonstration of St Emilion limestone

04: Mark talks terroir with Damien Barton Sartorius

 

Cabernet Franc is now being increasingly planted once again. It adds energy to Merlot, and pockets of the Right Bank can also successfully grow Cabernet Sauvignon, especially on the gravel soils in the north-west corner of St Emilion and into Pomerol. Wines made from 100% Merlot are rare. Even the team at Petrus will admit to a minuscule amount of Cabernet Franc in their blend, where it is co-planted with Merlot, which famously plays the starring role.

 

A Bordeaux producer may have a huge number of components to consider when making the final blend: up to six grape varieties; coming from a wide variety of soils; and possibly aged in a selection of barrels of different oaks from different coopers.

It could be argued, also, that there is a seventh variety: press wine. This is the wine produced by pressing the grape skins and solids after fermentation; it is typically concentrated, dark and tannic. How much press wine is used will depend on the quality of the vintage. Tasting a wine before and after its addition, it is clear how press wine brings the whole blend into focus.

Because of the size of its vineyard holding, a typical top Bordeaux château will try to create a wine that is the best representation of its style and reputation. Unlike Burgundy, the focus is not on expressing the character of any particular vineyard (although that would be possible). For years, the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit at the heart of Château Latour has come from its L’Enclos plot. Yet the character of Latour remains better captured when other supporting elements are introduced.

Furthermore, no vineyards are completely homogenous: St Estèphe has significant amounts of clay, so Merlot is very important there. And in Margaux, the lighter gravels allow Merlot to thrive in certain pockets. Château Palmer, for example, will usually have up to 50% Merlot in its grand vin. When asked why he didn’t replace the Merlot with Cabernet Sauvignon, winemaker Thomas Duroux replied, “Why? Those Merlot plots produce great wine.”

 

The blending sessions for each new vintage usually take place in the early spring after the harvest, once all the fermentations are complete. Larger châteaux might have 100 or more samples to consider. This number has grown recently, with the move to harvesting parcels, or parts of parcels, individually and then fermenting each wine separately. In the past, harvest teams would have just moved methodically through the vineyard once the signal was given to start the picking.

If handled separately, these individual parcels undeniably have their own character. Recently, I had the opportunity to taste wines made from different plots at Château Léoville Barton with Damien Barton Sartorius, standing in each vineyard as we did so. This brought home the many facets of Cabernet Sauvignon – and how each fold and crease in the landscape draws a different expression of the grape variety.

 

Each château has plots that are known to form the heart of the blend. Some other plots may perform better or worse in each vintage, depending on a multitude of factors, and must be assessed for suitability. It would be normal at this stage to make a first triage and decide whether each sample should be destined for the first, second or even third wine.

The skills necessary to make these decisions can be empirical, like the cellar master knowing the character of each vineyard from years of experience. But they can also be professional: the role of the consultant oenologist, with their broader experience of each vintage and scientific analysis of each sample, works hand-in-glove with the local knowledge during the process.

 

05: A blending session at Ch. Haut-Bailly with Véronique Sanders (right)

06: Gabriel Vialard (right) outlines the blend for Haut-Bailly II

 

It was a lucky recent privilege to arrive at Château Haut-Bailly just as they were finishing the blend for their second wine. Two or three dozen components had been considered; the best were selected by Véronique Sanders, technical director Gabriel Vialard and their consultant oenologist Axel Marchal. We were invited to taste all the components, each shining in their individuality, and then the finished blends. It was especially interesting to see the effect of barrels made by different coopers. The character of each individual sample never dominated the final blend. That is the art of the blender.

 

The miracle of blending is how a seemingly very small addition can shift the balance and expression of a wine. Some châteaux might even include a grape variety that constitutes just 0.5% of a final blend, while still having a role to play. Many other regions will blend different grape varieties to create their wines, but it is only really Bordeaux and Champagne where the skill is so integral to the final result – not least because the volumes of wine are so significant.

Talk of the Bordeaux blend is dominated by red wines, but the same skills are also applied to the region’s dry and sweet wines, too. There will always be a few mavericks who will seek to mimic the Burgundian method of tiny cuvées from small, individual vineyards, but Bordeaux’s soul still rests with the art of the blend.