Is merlot really passe??

[Thraz]

Merlot has been taking an undeserved beating lately. Sure there is bad merlot - as there is bad pinot noir and bad everything else. But some of the legendary wines of the world are merlot-based. They include Chateau Petrus and... Chateau Cheval Blanc. This last one is a St. Emilion, from the Bordeaux region. St. Emilion is one of two subregions of Bordeaux (Pomerol being the other one - Petrus is a Pomerol) whose wines use merlot as a primary grape in their mixes. Chateau Cheval Blanc's other distinction is that it is the prized bottle of the same character in Sideways that disses merlot in an earlier scene (the same bottle he drinks in the fast food joint at the end of the movie).

I have to think that this merlot schizophrenia in the movie was intentional - sort of a message about the stupidity of generalizations in wine as in everything else, but I guess only the negative part stuck, unfortunately. In any event, the short of it is that if you like some merlots, keep going - the waiter who thinks merlot is passe because of a line in a movie is probably just easily impressed.