ELI5: cepage

In everyday life, cépage is simply a fancy French word for the specific type or variety of grape used to make a wine.

Think about apples at the grocery store. You have bright green Granny Smith apples that taste very sour, and dark red Red Delicious apples that taste sweet and soft. Even though they are all apples, each variety tastes completely different and is used for different things.

Grapes work the exact same way:

• Single-variety wine: If a winemaker makes a bottle using only one type of grape—like 100% Chardonnay or 100% Merlot—that specific grape is the cépage.
• Wine blends (Assemblage): If a winemaker mixes different types of grapes together, like combining sweet red apples with sour green apples in a pie, the recipe of different grapes is called the blend of cépages.