Long before the movie ‘Sideways’ made it hip to diss Merlot, the wine industry had its own jaundiced view of this red grape variety from Bordeaux.
The Napa Valley’s Louis M. Martini winery claims to have been the first American winery to make a varietal Merlot, and that was sometime in the 1970s. Until then Merlot was largely thought to produce an ‘incomplete’ wine and was used exclusively for blending, typically to ‘soften’ young Cabernet Sauvignons and make them easier to drink upon release. (Note that a Cabernet can contain up to 25 percent of another grape variety and still meet the legal requirement to be called Cabernet.)
This was taking the ‘Bordeaux’ philosophy to its extreme. The Bordeaux region historically utilized numerous red grapes varieties, with varying ripening patterns, to guard against the failure of any one crop. Merlot is the favored second grape, right behind Cabernet Sauvignon.
What New World vintners sometimes forget, and many consumers don’t even realize, is that some districts of the Bordeaux region treat Merlot as the primary grape variety; and the most exclusive and expensive Bordeaux, the famed Chateau Petrus, is for all intents and purposes a Merlot.
I was given cause to reflect on the conventional Merlot wisdom as I plowed through a recent tasting loaded with expensive Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons, most of which I rated highly. What caught my attention, however, was the smattering of Merlots I sampled that day.
They were all very good, and three of them were made from Napa Valley grapes. The best of the bunch was the succulent 2004 Truchard from Napa’s Carneros district. But the 2005 Chappellet and 2005 Clos du Val also were rock solid wines that I could easily recommend. What was most striking, besides the quality, was the price.
The Cabs I tasted that day ranged in price from $70 to $140, with a slew in the $90 range. The Truchard Merlot? $28. The Chappellet? $32. The Clos du Val? $26. Given the terribly high price of coveted red wine from the Napa Valley, America’s most prominent wine region, the three Merlots stood out for value.
Maybe I have ‘Sideways’ to thank for this happy state of affairs. Merlot may not be chic, but when it’s good it’s really good. And even I can afford it.
8