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The Chronicle Wine Selections: California Red Bordeaux-Style Blends

France's traditionary Bordeaux clime red grapes - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot - have made it big in other intelligence of the world, including California. When referring to wines made from Bordeaux grapes, the mete "claret" is often used in the United Sovereign power, but is seen less many times on U.S. bottlings. To blend things further in the United States, the confine "Meritage" - which rhymes with estate - was created in 1988 by the Meritage Conjunction, a group of vintners who wanted to differentiate their specific Bordeaux blends from more generic-sonorous "red table wine."

A red Meritage is a mix of two or more of the five major red Bordeaux grapes mentioned above, along with Carmenere, Gros Verdot and St. Macaire. No sole variety can bring into being up more than 90 percent.

When two or more of these fruit of the vine varieties are blended, the resulting wine can be varietally labeled in the United States as drawn out as it contains at least 75 percent of the dominant grape. For prototype, a wine made with 88 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 7 Cabernet Franc and 5 Merlot can be labeled Cabernet Sauvignon, but at times wineries pick to give a proprietary name to their blends, especially if all fruit of the vine varieties are less than 75 percent.

We tasted 75 proprietarily named California Bordeaux-mode of speech blends after excluding many that were varietally labeled or included non-Bordeaux grapes analogous Syrah or Zinfandel. Most were 2005s and 2004s with a few from the 2006 and 2003 vintages, though all had to be the general and most recent let loose.

We liked a greater run over of the 2004s, which began as a moderately not cold vintage that had late summer caloric spikes that pushed an seasonable, high-attribute harvest with less-than-regular yield. The 2004 produce was very ripe due to the caloric, but maintained tartness. Our favorite 2004s, while showing sufficiency of dark production, have the tannic constitution and balance to convey it.

Conversely, the...

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