“No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any f****ing Merlot!” Miles Raymond, Sideways.
Poor Merlot. It’s misunderstood. Even that famous line from Sideways is a little misunderstood. Miles is reminded of his ex-wife when people drink Merlot, he doesn’t hate the grape or the wine for how it tastes. He’s obsessed with 1961 Cheval Blanc after all, a wine he’d know was mostly Merlot. That didn’t stop the well-reported decline of Merlot sales in America as drinkers sought the ethereal and mystic Pinot Noir.
It’s an unfair slight on a grape that genuinely produces flavourful and easy to drink wines at virtually every price level. Where would Bordeaux be without Merlot? Chilean wine could hardly have grown to where it is today without it. Even in California, home to our heroes in Sideways, Merlot covers approximately 18,294 hectares. Merlot is here to stay.
A Wine For Everyone
Sure, it might not have the wonder and “intellect” of Pinot Noir but it’s helped everyone from winemakers to wine drinkers. It straddles cheap and prestigious effortlessly. Unfortunately, in America at least, one pop culture reference was all it took to undermine all this. It’s wine’s number one fashion victim.
Merlot’s comforting fruitiness and soft, velvety tannins are the definition of easy to drink. There’s something comforting the way the tannins and fruit caress your tongue. And that a grape could seamlessly be the backbone of such awe-inspiring wines like Cheval Blanc as well as in the “plonk” you’d pick up from a supermarket.
Like when Andy Warhol said “You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too.” Though Merlot grown for Cheval Blanc does not exactly equal sub £5 new world, it has the same subtle characteristics no matter where it’s grown. It brings the world of wine closer.
Why Merlot Was Unfashionable
Could anything else so plastic and versatile be so divisive? Perhaps because it’s everywhere it’s a larger target. The low cost “wine products” built for retailers rather than crafted for palates haven’t helped. A kind of gold rush where poor quality wines are rushed out before the flood gates are drawn back.
Then it’s up to the artisans to repair the image. When you look at most widely available grape varieties, bar one or two varieties grown exclusively for “bulk” wine, it’s hard to think of any grape variety that’s uniformly terrible.
Buy The Right Wine
Perhaps the ease at which Merlot can be identified is part of why its victim to fashion. At the cheaper end of the spectrum it can be sickly sweet, overly fruity and thick. Then there’s no real middle ground before you get to the ultra-expensive old world examples.
Merlot’s use is more than just “filler”, it’s a vital ingredient to some of history’s greatest wines, means it deserves a place in everyone’s cellar, rack or cupboard. One of the joys of wine is discovery, don’t let any trend stand in your way. There are some wonderful Merlot wines out there. So pass the Cheval Blanc, won’t you?
Corney & Barrow’s Top 3 Merlots
Chateau La Grave de Bertin 2012
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