Hello,
This may be fairly old news to most of you, but I never realised the figure was so high.
In Australia [as of 2002, I think the law is still the same] a variety can be labelled as say for example "Shiraz" even if it is only 85% shiraz?
How common is this? I can imagine many red wines being "smoothed out" using merlot.
Not to mention of course something could be labelled "Barossa single vineyard 100 year old vine shiraz" when in fact it contains 15% Marloolabah Merlot. :-\
Is this common throughout the world? I know the French have very rigid laws regarding wine making, the German system is much more free and easy.
Thanks,
Mat.