Grape variety detail disappearing from blend labels

I’ve been noticing that more and more bottle labels, especially with reds blends, give no detail as to the grape varieties used. As someone whose understanding of what a wine might taste like is grounded in that information I find this disconcerting. I find the lack of info especially on lower priced wines, but more and more apparent generally.

This morning I found this article on what younger consumers look for in wine labels. I found it especially interesting that the list of things they’d like on the back label didn’t even include variety info as an option.

Anybody have any thoughts on this??

I suppose I should add that I’m talking mostly about New World wines where variety is more usually on the label in the first place.

To add more fuel to the fire, being someone who pours wine at events, I can’t tell you how many times I here “I’ll take a glass of the red” or “I’ll take a glass of the white”. Bums me out a bit when I hear it, but I do hear it often from younger customers.

There are people exploring wine at all levels. I understand the one dimensional nature of just thinking of it as red or white but, as someone who sells wine retail and also does tastings, I try to educate people if they seem interested. The lack of label specificity makes that harder. I suppose I can see how wine marketers may be less interested in pushing the variety than in advancing their brand. I just think it would be of more broad benefit to educate consumers more deeply in the long run. But what do I know?

I was told by Owner/Wine Maker Paul Sobon that the reason he stopped listed the varietals and percentages was that when he had to change the blend do to the vintage, people stopped buying it because the blend changed. I tried both vintages of his blend and the only difference I could tell was the amount of spice present.

What he said makes sense to me, especially in the lower end blends as the blend can and will change vintage to vintage and sometimes run to run in the more mass produced stuff.