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“The split is closer to 50-50 today, but in the beginning, the whole idea was to bring more men into the category. “So that’s why they did tastings at barbecues and state fairs, and why the labels are darker and more masculine,” says Dr Liz Thach MW, the Distinguished Professor of Wine and Management at Sonoma State University. The brands were smooth, high in residual sugar, under $15 - and targeted at young men more used to drinking soda. Gallo’s blockbuster red blend, Apothic, was released in 2010, and then came Treasury Wine Estates’ 19 Crimes in 2012, complete with an augmented reality label. The big companies were quick to notice the opportunity and move in. The red blend category was sizzling, but it was still expensive. In 2016, Constellation bought the brand for $285 million, and even went so far as to create a winery for it. It stood out - and people couldn’t get enough of it. Called The Prisoner, the $35 wine wasn’t just an unusual blend but also esthetically unusual, with a macabre label that showed a shackled prisoner. Winemaker Dave Phinney released 385 cases of a Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Syrah, and Charbono blend, because they were the only grapes he could get his hands on. What made Ménage à Trois different, however, was that it was a serious wine, sold at a premium price. Then there was Meritage, an attempt by Californian winemakers to create a strictly-defined Bordeaux blend, which never took off. There were simple table wines, like E&J Gallo’s Hearty Burgundy. There had been plenty of red blends before, including California’s traditional field blends, which were red wines literally made from whatever grapes were in the field. The distinctively American red blend was born. The result was dubbed Ménage à Trois, and it was an immediate success. The next step was blending the two grapes, which had rarely been considered partners, and adding Merlot. Harvey was passionate about both Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, and his new job gave him access to high quality material of both. Richard Peterson, and their combined creativity took wine in a new direction. He found himself working alongside winemaker Dr. Helena hired Scott Harvey to be winemaker and president. Where did modern red wine blends come from?īack in 1996, Folie à Deux Winery in St. Putting Zinfandel with Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, would be illegal. This is particularly true for the red wines of Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley, where only very specific grapes can be blended together. On the other hand, traditional red blends often stick to defined proportions and can be some of the most expensive wines in the world. They’re not necessarily made with the same percentage of specific grapes in the blend, or even the same grapes, from vintage to vintage, often relying on what’s least expensive - so lots of Merlot one year, but lots of Syrah the next. Traditional red blends often have centuries of tradition behind them, like the reds from Bordeaux and the Rhône, and the labels are as old-fashioned as wine labels get, often including a line illustration of the chateau.Īnd third, the new red blends are generally - but not always - cheap, sometimes costing less than $10. Second, they’re marketing driven, with clever names like Ménage à Trois and eye-catching labels like the 19 Crimes silhouettes. First, they’re sweet, where traditional red blends are dry, and they’re aimed at an audience where smooth is a key wine descriptor. “Today, they’re making red blends for the children and grandchildren of the immigrants, who grew up on soft drinks and expect wine to be sweet.”īecause today’s red blends have almost nothing in common with the traditional red blends that McAnulla describes. “When Robert Mondavi and the Gallos first made wine, they made it for immigrants who knew that red wine was dry,” she says. Natalie McAnulla, the assistant manager at HB Liquors Sheridan in suburban Denver, has a theory about why so many people are buying so many so-called red blends at her store.