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From: spp@ucbvax.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU (Stephen P Pope)
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: Re: Question about California wines
Message-ID: <11538@ucbvax.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 24-Jan-86 18:54:10 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.11538
Posted: Fri Jan 24 18:54:10 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jan-86 09:40:56 EST
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Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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> Why is it that California wines are almost exclusively varietals?

Rephrasing as "Why are French wines seldom varietals?", it has
something to do with the fact that in France, there are
laws dictating what grapes may be grown in which regions.
So, it isn't as necessary to say on the label what grapes
are in the wine since this is narrowed down to a few varieties
by the appelation.
     California has no such laws, so it's neccessary to
state the varieties on the label for the sake of
informativeness.
     Footnote: with stricter California laws on varietal
content, you have more and more reserve "cabernets" which
are not called such, such as Clos du Bois "Marlstone",
since they have less than the legal percentsge of Cabernet.

steve