Types of Wine Grapes
Wine is made with grapes, but not typical table grapes you’ll find at the grocery. Wine grapes (latin name: Vitis vinifera) have thick skins, are small, sweet, and contain seeds. There are many different kinds of wine grapes–over a thousand,–but just a few of these varieties are grown commonly all over the world.
Single-Variety Wines and Wine Blends
A wine made with one type of grape is a single-variety wine or, varietal wine, and a wine made with several different grapes is a blend. Some wine blends are named after the place they originated. For example, a Bordeaux Blend is a blend of several grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and comes from Bordeaux, France. Another familiar example is Chianti (“key-aunt-tee”), a Sangiovese-based blend from Tuscany, Italy.