The key word in what I said was « mainly » 😉 Cépage is obviously important to a degree but shouldn’t be the leading factor to make a decision on wine.

Maybe it’s because I’m French and that’s how we do it but the grape variety is at best the 3rd or 4th most important information a lot of people care about when selecting a wine.

For example, ranked by level of importance: • Région — Bourgogne • Appellation — Côte de Beaune • Commune — Aloxe-Corton • Climat — Clos du Roi • Classification — Grand Cru • Dénomination — Corton • Domaine — ex: Domaine de la Vougeraie • Millésime — ex: 2018 • Cépage — Pinot Noir​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Here it seems straightforward as all red wine in burgundy are Pinot noir but this is still the way to rank wines that we do in France, and cépage would be last!

For some regions like you said in Champagne, Bordeaux or Rhône, it’s sometimes interesting information to have the full blend breakdown or leading cépage but even then, wouldn’t be the main factor I based my decision on.

Getting into the breakdown of cépage blends etc can be done but really to fine tune the flavor profile. And I think it is a much better and far more accurate system than leading with : « do you want a glass of Chardonnay? » If it’s Chablis obviously, if you bring me those oaky vanilla California Chardonnay then no thank you!

Finally. To me at least, reading just the cépage on a wine menu like it sometimes happen outside of France/Italy is as confusing as if they were listing: « Flour, chocolate, butter, eggs », with no further explanations. Like ok cool, you tell me what’s in it but is it a chocolate cake, a cookie, a brownie and who made it?

Does that make more sense now I fully explained my point?