Nez Noir Rouge

It is up to the cellar master to compose a complex, finesse-rich but balanced taste experience from wines of different characters. Often, colourful, full-bodied and tannic wines are blended with lighter, fruit-intensive wines to achieve a more complex, intense harmony of aromas. The aim is not to conceal the weaknesses of a wine, but to combine strengths; the cuvée should be of higher quality and taste better than the single-varietal wine. In order for a cuvée to present itself as a harmonious composition, characteristics such as fruitiness, acidity, tannin content, alcohol content and residual sweetness have to be very precisely sensory assessed during preliminary tastings. It is an art that requires a great deal of knowledge, skill, sensitivity and experience to finely match complementary varieties to create a particularly round and harmonious wine.

The terms assemblage and cuvée sometimes cause more confusion than clarity. This is because they are used differently in French than in German. In German-speaking countries, the term cuvée and the synonym assemblage are used for a blend of different grape varieties, vintages or sites. Not so in France. Cuvée comes from the French Cuve (vat or wine container) and actually refers to a certain amount of wine in a vessel. Accordingly, in French, each separately bottled wine is called a cuvée - in the sense of bottling. The composition of the cuvée is called assemblage in France. If simple wines are blended, the French speak of a coupage.