Care and consumption of merlot

[Thomas]

Beer is for sailing, wine is for partaking with your feet firmly on the ground. All that sloshing really does do damage to wine once it has been open. The stuff that comes across the oceans in containers needs time to settle down, and it has not been opened.

As to your specific Merlot question: it is impossible, in my view, to simply use the same rule for every Merlot; there are merlots and there are Merlots, and then there are those who produce Merlot under a proprietary name.