On Tap

Blending Right In

Finding the right companion for a burger at Barrel & Fork

by Trevor Burton | photography by Trevor Burton

E Pluribus Vinum; a little linguistically inaccurate but it could be a description for blended wine—out of many, a wine. Blended wines are made by assembling together individual wines made from several different grapes—out of many, one. By combining grape varieties winemakers can accentuate one wine’s virtues or ameliorate its weak points. Maybe, by blending, you can add a touch of spice to a wine’s aroma or a bit more body to a wine’s texture. A wine becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

An example; Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world’s great red grapes, but it can be extremely tannic when young. A little Merlot can round out those harsh tannins and tame Cabernet’s innate aggressiveness. That’s the basis for the world-famous wines of Bordeaux in France. There’s a little bit more to it. Bordeaux wines are a blend of five grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Alone, each of these grapes can produce superb wines. Together, they soar to great heights.

Most wines in the United States are blended but they don’t show it. By law, a wine listed as a varietal (Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, etc…) must be 75 percent of the listed varietal. The remaining 25 percent can be anything a winemaker chooses. Most winemakers will blend a bit of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and/or Malbec behind a wine labeled as “Cabernet Sauvignon.” While you may not know it, a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon may, in fact, be a Bordeaux blend. While great wine is grown on the vine, the final decisions on what to do with the 25 percent “blank page” can really make or break a finished product.

A favorite blended wine, for me, comes from the Southern Rhône area of France. Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes form the core of most red Côtes-du-Rhône wines. The three work so well together that the blend is the basis for wines from other warm climate regions—wines that carry the GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre) moniker. In Rhône wines, Grenache almost always dominates the blend. Syrah contributes structure and spicy notes, while Mourvèdre brings its dark, chocolatey notes and intense color. These wines are great and one jumped out at me from Barrel & Fork’s wine list. In a pleasant surprise, the wine turned to be a Côtes-du-Rhône Villages. This is a wine that’s a click above, in quality, to general wines from the region.

And, so to food. It was the wine that chose my dish. I wanted to pair it with something that would match the wine’s depth. I went for a cheeseburger with bacon, blue cheese and caramelized onion aioli. This was a day of pleasant surprises. A second one was that the cheeseburger came with a fried egg as an addition.

Together, everything was so good that I, instinctively, let out a sigh of contentment. This was met with an admonition from my wife that what I was noshing on was merely a ground-beef patty. What to do but respond with, “It’s my patty and I’ll sigh if I want to.” I had to explain that the dish was a combination of ingredients that worked well together. And then it hit me. I was dining on a blended dish, paired with a blended wine at a meal, brunch, that blends together breakfast and lunch. I was in the presence of culinary symmetry. How nice is that? It cut me down to sighs.