Blend it, shake it: It's all in the grapes

Updated: 17:00 EST, 28 November 2009

The Plan de Dieu Cotes du Rhone Villages 2008 has sparks of spice

I've just been blending wine in Sicily, and it's awesome fun, a bit like building a recipe. In some ways, wine is easier to understand if it's a single grape variety such as Shiraz or Chardonnay, as you can identify the leading characteristic.

But wine is also made from blends of grapes, which offers a tailored, unique approach. Take Rioja: it's a region that pumps out many styles of juice but the reds are blended from grapes such as Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano.

Why? Different varieties bring different qualities to a blend - colour, zip, spice, fruit and structure. Their sum is greater than the parts.

The Champagne region is a fantastic example of blending not just different grape varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier) but also blending across grapes from different years for the Non-Vintage wines (NV on the label).

The reason for this is genius - it maintains a consistent house style and flavour, so when you buy NV Taittinger, Bollinger or Pol Roger, you know you'll be getting the same taste year in year out.

This was a blending model that the Aussies used for a lot of their everyday wine for years. Each year they'd make sure the style was consistent by sourcing fruit from a wide area of vineyards, so that people who bought it could feel confident that it would taste like it did last year.

I've always been a fan of sampling music before I buy an album and I am delighted that more and more wine shops are offering the chance to try before you buy, notably The Sampler in north London, (the sampler.co.uk).

Thanks to modern dispensing systems, wines can be pumped out by the glass in pristine order, so you don't have to buy the whole bottle to know what you're getting - and with blended wines, that opens the doors to a world of experimentation, rummaging and glugging. Finding your sweet spot just got a whole lot simpler.

If you're still unsure, try established blends from regions steeped in tradition such as Chianti (where blends are founded on the Sangiovese grape along with other local varieties) and Bordeaux, where Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are the principal grapes used in reds (but you can also find Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Carménère and Malbec). What you're looking for in the wine is a sense of balance.

And if you really want to branch out, look to some of the quirkier blends coming out of Australia and New Zealand, where the sense of flare and experimentation is modern and thrilling - and produces some fascinating results.

Plan de Dieu Cotes du Rhone Villages 2008

Domaine de la Meynarde (top right)

£6.49, Marks & Spencer 

Superb wine - a blend of 70 per cent Grenache, 25 per cent Syrah and five per cent Carignan with ripe black cherry-ish fruity appeal. It's got sparks of spice and is a great-value warming glass of fun. Load up!

Pol Roger Réserve NV champagne

(right)

£37.50 (£24.99 when you buy two bottles), Majestic

Beautiful fizz with floral lightness, hints of more nutty layers and a gorgeous, uplifting crisp zing.

It's made from 30 base wines from at least two vintages and is comprised of equal parts Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.

The Chocolate Block 2008, Boekenhoutskloof (left)

£19.99, Oddbins

An outstanding red wine - it's perfumed, spicy, big yet silky with meaty fruit and layers of complexity. Make steaks, drink this and relax.

The blend is 69 per cent Syrah, 12 per cent Grenache, ten per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, seven per cent Cinsault and two per cent Viognier.

The White 2006, The John Forrest Collection

(right)

£16.99, cellarandkitchen, adnams.co.uk

On paper it's bonkers - an astonishing blend of Viognier, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and Gewyurztraminer sourced from all over New Zealand that shifts in proportions year in year out.

But this wine is fresh and zippy. Magnificent.