🍷 Assemblage
Blending wines from different grapes, plots or years before bottling.
Assemblage is the blending of wines from different grapes, sites or years before bottling. The word is French and means "putting together". Winemakers taste the separate wines and put them together into one to get the desired taste.
Blending makes wine fuller and more consistent from year to year. In Bordeaux, for example, red wine is often assembled from several grapes, each with its own strengths. In Champagne, non-vintage champagne is made as a blend of wines from different years so that the house style stays recognisable. Reserve wines kept from earlier harvests are used for this.
A blend, or cuvée, is a close idea and often means the same. Assemblage is an important skill of the winemaker, almost like a cook choosing spices. It is an ordinary part of French wine, not a trick: on labels such wines are called blends or simply list the composition.
What it includes
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 Wine
- Related to
- 🗺️ French wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Blend, 🍷 Non-vintage Champagne, 🍷 Reserve wine
Frequently asked questions
What is assemblage?
The blending of wines from different grapes, sites or years before bottling.
Why is wine blended?
To get a fuller taste and keep a consistent style from year to year.
How are assemblage and blending related?
They are close ideas, both meaning mixing wines; assemblage is the French word.
Similar
🍷 Cuvée · 🍷 Ancestral method · 🍷 Lees ageing · 🍷 Fortification · 🍷 Dealcoholisation · 🍷 Charmat method