Minisode #7: A Quick Primer on Red Blends

Episode Notes

A Quick Primer on Red Blends

Hi everyone, and welcome to this next mini-episode of The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair.

If you are new to The Wine Pair Podcast, these minisodes are just shorter versions of the podcast that we put on weeks where we might be traveling or handling other life stuff, and instead of tasting and reviewing three wines under $20 that are easy to find, which is what we usually do in our longer episodes, in the minisodes, we focus more on things like wine etiquette, wine education, and wine tips. And, we try to make it fun and understandable to regular, everyday people like us! And our podcast is recommended by Decanter magazine. So there!

In this minisode, we are going to give you a quick primer - the word looks like primer, but it is pronounced primmer - on red blends. 

Carmela, when you go to the grocery store or a wine shop, do you ever notice there are a lot of wines called red blends? One of the things that kind of drives me crazy about a lot of red blends is that they do not tell you what grapes are actually in the wine, and from my perspective, that is a big problem, because after all, it is the grapes that determine how the wine is going to taste. And just using the term red blend gives you zero idea about how that wine is going to taste. You need to know the grapes!

So, my first rule of thumb would be - if you don’t know what’s in the red blend, you should stay away. My expectation is that, if they don’t tell you, or at least tell you the style of red blend they are trying to imitate - like a bordeaux blend - they are hiding something. And that thing they are hiding may be crappy grapes put into a crappy, random blend. So, look for wines where they tell you on the label what is in the wine. Please! 

Now, when it comes to blends, there are two classic red wine blends that originated in France, and that most red blends made outside of France are based on. Not all, mind you, but a lot of them, and to varying degrees. 

The two main types are the Bordeaux blend, which comes from the Bordeaux region of France, and the GSM blend, also known as the Grenache - Syrah - Mourvèdre blend, also known as the Rhône Blend because it comes from the Rhône Valley in France.

Let’s start with Bordeaux blends. The main wine grapes usually found in a Bordeaux blend are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, although there can be others, and the exact mix or proportion of wine different wine grapes in a Bordeaux blend can vary a lot. Most of the time, these wines are blends, but sometimes there are single varietals. In fact, some of the most famous Bordeaux wines are made of mostly or only Merlot, such as Chateau Petrus from Pomerol.

Many of the red wine blends made outside of France are based on Bordeaux blends, and what is interesting is that Cabernet Sauvignon, which is a very popular single varietal wine globally, is most often a blending wine in France and not often found as a single varietal. Some blends you may have heard of like Meritage and Claret are actually Bordeaux style blends made outside of Bordeaux. In the US, a Bordeaux style blend is often called Meritage, and in the UK, the Bordeaux style blend is called Claret. So that is some valuable info you can put into your pocket!

A Bordeaux style blend is usually a pretty full bodied, highly tannic, and sometimes also high acid wines, often considered complex. And, good blends can age for a long time. 

Now, GSM blends, which are often called Rhône style blends are made from only the 3 grapes Grenache - Syrah - Mourvèdre - hence the shortening to GSM - although the grapes can be mixed in varying amounts or proportions. Sometimes you will see wines made outside of Rhône labled as GSM, but you should also know that other wines made from the GSM blend in France are Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Côtes du Rhône from France, and Piriorat from Spain. Australia, which is famous for Syrah, also makes a lot of GSM wine blends. 

GSM blends are generally considered a bit lighter bodied and medium with softer tannins than a Bordeaux blend, and can be very fruit-forward - like punch you in the face fruit forward. They are often juicy, spicy, and black fruit oriented. They also tend to have lower acidity than Bordeaux blends.

Now, which one you prefer is of course a matter of taste, but if you like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, you will probably lean toward Bordeaux style blends, and if you like Syrah and spicy and fruity wines, you will probably like GSM. 

But, of course, the only way to know is to try, and the only way to really know what you are trying is to actually know what wine is in the bottle. So, when you are looking for wines and are faced with a red wine blend, you can at least know, if they tell you what grapes are in it, what kind of a wine experience to expect. 

Articles and Links

• https://www.bordeauxwinetrails.com/what-is-bordeaux-wine/
• https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/a-primer-to-bordeaux-wine/
• https://winefolly.com/wines/rhone-gsm-blend/
• https://thecraftycask.com/craft-wine/deconstructing-gsm-wine/ 

Ok, that’s it for this minisode. Check out our other minisodes to learn more which you can find on our website or your favorite podcast service. You can follow us on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast or you can visit our website thewinepairpodcast.com and in any of those places you can reach out to us directly, and you can send us an email at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. We also will have our show notes on our website, and we will include links to articles on this topic as well. 

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