The obsession of British drinkers with grape varieties is not doing our taste buds any favours. The big four — cabernet sauvignon and merlot for reds, chardonnay and sauvignon for whites — are all very well drunk solo, but there are lots of smashing summer blends that happily combine two, three, four or more grapes but which are ignored by drinkers. My favourite summer pink, a Tavel Rosé, is a blend of seven different varieties; some of the finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape estates use all 13 grapes allowed by the appellation.

Most of the world’s greatest wines, including bordeaux, champagne, sherry and madeira, are blends, whose producers are keen to use the entire orchestra of different wines at their disposal. With large blending tanks being used instead of bottling straight from wooden barrels, blended wines are on the increase. Winemakers are aware that the sum of the whole is often far greater than its parts.

Blended wine got its bad reputation in the days before tight regulation, when charlatans eked out grand wines with whatever they had to hand. There are all sorts of ways to perk up sub-£6 everyday wines without ceremony. Blending a heavily oaked or oak-chipped wine in an unoaked vat to create a tastier, lightly oaked result is one example; another is to make wines less assertive by encouraging a malolactic fermentation.

Australian winemakers are so obsessed with blending that they create multiregional blends by transporting grape varieties and wine hundreds of miles across states. One Aussie appellation, South Eastern Australia, comprises three states rolled into one: Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. The latter is home to the Barossa Valley and St Hallett’s brilliant, zesty, lemon meringue pie-stashed 2008 Poacher’s Blend (Waitrose, £7.99), a semillon-sauvignon-riesling mix, and its red partner, the 2008 Gamekeeper’s Reserve, a hefty, clove and creosote-spiked shiraz, grenache and touriga combo (both at Wine Rack, buy three for £6.33 each). Add a few more grapes and a move to the Clare Valley and you get 2007 Pikes Red Mullet, whose soft mulberry spice makes a good barbecue bottle, and its superior sister, 2008 Pikes White Mullet, a delicious, aromatic, exotic, lime-layered white (both down to £5.98 at Wine Rack until June 9).

Bordeaux teaches the New World a blend or two with the gorgeous, tangy, sauvignon-dominant 2008 Château des Chapelains Prélude Sec (Oddbins, £7.99) with the generous dollops of semillon, sauvignon gris and muscadelle.

So blends it is.

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