“Blending is the winemakers’ equivalent to chefs cooking up a signature dish,” says Brian Bicknell, owner of the New Zealand winery Mahi. While some wines — such as Burgundies — are made from a single kind of grape grown in a single year, most wines are blends of grapes grown in various years. Blending together wines made from different grapes allows winemakers to combine less-stellar batches — too acidic or tannic, say — to create a wine that’s better balanced.