So, What's the Deal With Merlot?

[Innkeeper]

Merlot is, was, and always has been a single dimensional wine (usually plums) as a varietal. Things that can add dimensions to it include oak (hopefully not one of two), age of vines, and terroir. Only a tiny percentage of the varietal merlot that is on the market today or yesterday, for that matter, contain more than the first two dimensions.

Merlot's historical role has been as a blending wine; with cabernet sauvignon on the West Bank of the Garrone, and with cabernet franc on the East Bank. The best New World wines contain it in the blend.

There are some (underlined) tiny, tiny places in both the Old World and the New where all things come together just right to produce nice varietal merlot. There are just about an equal number of winemakers who have the talent to "make" a decent varietal merlot out of very little.

Why then, you may ask is merlot so popular. The answer is the French Parodox. Following this disclosure of this on 60 Minutes, people flocked to wine stores and restaurants looking for red wine. What they found at the time, unfortunately, was varietal cabernet sauvignon. At that time this was, for the most part, excellent wine that needed some time in the rack. Not willing to wait, the newcomers said phooie. Then the few producers of varietal merlot became the heros because it was so approachable. So thousands of acres were planted in all the wrong places. Now, you know the rest of the story.