Had a Meritage recently? What grape variety is that, you ask? Well, it’s actually a blend of varieties. Which ones, you ask? Well, that depends on the winery, which could offer more than one blend. Say what?

In order to understand this most confusing (and, to my mind, nebulous and unsatisfactory) term, one has to trace back the history of wine labeling in the United States. When winemakers in this country were first trying to market their wines decades ago, they thought the best way to attract people to their products was to call them romantic-sounding, easy-to-pronounce, one-word European names. And so most white wines were labeled Chablis (usually drier) or Rhine (sweeter) and most reds identified as Burgundy (heavier) or Chianti (lighter). Stylistically, each winery developed a “recipe” for blending the juice of several varieties to create a smooth, easy-to-drink beverage with the broadest appeal. Although these blends may have included the juice of the so-called noble varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Riesling, lesser grapes were often used to “adjust” the recipe to each winery’s preferred style. Needless to say, this led to much inconsistency throughout the industry and the marketing of many poor wines.

To combat this trend and differentiate their wines from the sea of uninteresting or unpalatable blends, the top-quality wineries in California began in the 60’s to produce wines made strictly from the noble varietals and labeled as such. I can still remember spending more than usual (around $4, I think) to buy a Beaulieu Vineyards red wine with the hard-to-pronounce name Cabernet Sauvignon, whose back label proudly stated in bold white letters on a red backgorund: “produced from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.” These weren’t always the easiest to drink wines, but they were distinctive and they were pure – and that’s what counted, at least to my neophyte palate. Soon everyone got on the varietal bandwagon and the new world of premium wines was born. Strict labeling laws were enacted (at the request of the premium wine industry) which, while still allowing some blending, set specific standards for what kind and proportion of grapes could go into each wine marketed by a particular varietal name. Such laws vary by state, but require a minimum of 51% and up to 75% of the variety named on the label.

As wineries concentrated on growing only top-quality grapes from noble varieties, and the general public’s level of sophistication grew to learn about, appreciate and be willing to pay for better quality wines, winemakers began once again to experiment with blends (but only using top-quality grapes). Frequently, they came up with combinations of two or more grape varieties which produced delicious and harmonious wines but in proportions that ran afoul of the very labeling laws they had supported to protect their industry. Unable to label such wines with a varietal name, their only recourse was to call them “red/white table wines, ” which sounded less than noble and made it difficult to command a premium price. After much discussion, the California wine industry agreed on the term “Meritage” to denote a blend (or, to borrow the French term, “assemblage”) of special “merit.” Many high-end wineries began to offer Meritage wines (sometimes known as “proprietary blends’), frequently giving them fancy names (Opus I, Insignia, Rubicon, Charbonneau) to justify fancy prices.

Although this “movement” began primarily with super-premium blends using the traditional red Bordeaux-style varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc), it has spread to less pricey Rhone-style blends (composed of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre), white Bordeaux “knock-offs” (Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon), and, most recently, across-the-spectrum mixtures like Hedges Cellars’ flavorful (and inexpensive) Fume-Chardonnay and my Northwest pick for the month: Waterbrook Cellars’ 1999 Columbia Valley Melange (a “French” blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc plus 14% of the Italian varietal Sangiovese). Although just released and very young, this is an alluring, mouth-filling and very drinkable wine at the very fair retail price (especially for a Meritage) of $18.