Oh, Poor Merlot

Poor, poor, pitiful Merlot. It had more than a decade long love affair with the American wine consumer from the time of The French Paradox until Sideways.

Merlot's rise

Back in the olden days, say over three decades ago, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon were king, just like they are now. Cab was a dryer, more tannic wine compared to what's in style now. 

Along came The French Paradox on 60 minutes in 1991. This segment claimed the French ate fatty foods and smoked, but didn't have the health problems Americans did, and it was all because they drank a glass of red wine with their meals. Merlot was the red wine you could drink immediately and didn't have to age like Cabernet. Merlot sales shot up.

Merlot's quality suffered

All of a sudden, the retailers needed a lot more Merlot to sell. Wine isn't a production line; you can't just start making more. There's a several year lag from the time you decide to plant more wine grapes, get them planted, have the vines mature to where you can harvest fruit, then produce, age, and distribute it to the stores. 

What to do? By law, to label a wine by varietal, it has to be at least 75% of that grape. So one way to get more is by "diluting" with other, often cheaper grapes. Another way is to find more Merlot. The vast majority of California wine grapes are planted in the vast Central Valley. These are generally used for inexpensive white and red blends, but there would be some Merlot planted there along with everything else. It won't be of the same quality as what's growing in the coastal premium wine regions, but at least it's Merlot. There were some people planting it anywhere they could, not necessarily where it grows well.

Merlot was already on the way down when Pinot Noir came along and finished it off.

Beginnings of Pinot Noir's surge

About 20 years ago, I was taking a wine class at the local college. The instructor was a vineyard guy who'd been around the local grape biz for a long time. In one class, we were looking at what Sonoma County grows. One bit of info was the acreage the county had for currently producing Pinot Noir grapes and the amount of new plantings that's not yet in production (it takes at least three years for a vine to produce usable fruit). I remember him remarking at all the new Pinot plantings and wondering what we were going to do with all that fruit in future years. As it turned out, it wasn't a problem.

Sideways

The main character in the 2004 movie Sideways kept harping on how great Pinot Noir is and how crappy Merlot was, even though it was so popular. The movie caused a nosedive in Merlot sales while Pinot sales shot up, and almost 20 years later Pinot Noir is still in great demand. Since the movie came out, California grape production is up about 8 percent, while Pinot Noir is up about 175 percent. 

And there's Willamette Valley in Oregon that went from a kind of afterthought to a major producer of world-class Pinot Noir. In 2000 there were less than 5,000 acres of Pinot planted, twenty years later there are over 25,000 acres.

Merlot today

It ranks sixth in popularity for wines in America, and trails Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir in red varietals.

A lot of people wonder where all the Merlot went. Others try to resurrect it. Some wineries still make some damn good Merlot. My own problem with Merlot, before and after the French Paradox, was that it needs some beefing up, maybe blending it with some Cab Sauv. 

Perhaps the most consistently highest-rated Merlots in California are Amuse Bouche, Napa Valley, from Heidi Barrett, retailing for $225 and Duckhorn Three Palms, Napa Valley, $125. I've had neither because they're a bit out of my price range.

At a lower price, some highly rated California Merlots from Napa are other offerings from Duckhorn / Decoy, and from Mayacamas, Markham, Pahlmeyer, Pride, Rutherford Hill, St. Supery, and Trefethen. A few Sonoma County wineries known for Merlot are Lambert Bridge, Mill Creek, St. Francis, Robert Young, and Roth.

Besides Napa and Sonoma, you'll find good Merlot from Paso Robles and Washington state. Also, look for Bordeaux-type blends that use a lot of Merlot.

 

A Merlot-based Bordeaux-style blend