I Heart Merlot, 75cl

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Cabernet Franc is the one of the parents of Merlot with the rare Magdeleine Noire des Charentes being the other. This makes Merlot a half sibling of Cabernet Sauvignon. I should caveat that this was purely from a U.S. centric point of view. Most of the rest of the world didn’t lose their minds like folks in the U.S. Can you imagine folks in Bordeaux shunning Merlot?! It’s the most planted variety not just in Bordeaux, but all of France. I mean, what would have become of wines such as Petrus (my planned retirement day wine) and Cheval Blanc if folks in France had stopped producing Merlot? But a little craziness aside, its been great to see lots more Merlot love out there. International Merlot Month, evidenced by the hashtag #MerlotMe, occurs each year in October. And if that’s not enough, International Merlot Day occurs on November 7. I love the timing of the celebrations because there is just something about fall that makes me want to cozy up with Merlot. Why I Love Merlot Gwen at Wine Predator shares “ California vs. France #MerlotMe with squash, chard, and bow tie pasta” There is Merlot and then there is Mountain Merlot. And as a person that’s climbed a few mountains here and there, I can appreciate anything that thrives on them.

To say that Eric Miller, owner of Kokomo Winery, is a nice guy would be an understatement. The same can be said for his growing partner, Randy Peters, a viticulturist with a deep historical connection to the land in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley. Eric came to California to make wine from the Midwest — specifically, Kokomo, Ind., the winery’s namesake. When you arrive at their tasting room you feel like you’re hanging with the fam. Not only are these some truly cool dudes, but they’re amazing at their jobs. Eric is one of the most focused winemakers you’ll meet, and if you get him started, get ready for some deep wine convo. And Randy, when he pops by, has some great vineyard stories. This partnership and their attention to detail gives us wines like this amazing Merlot. It has wonderful tobacco and earthy blueberries on the nose. The palate is soft and supple with a lithe tannic frame. The best part is the excellent finish that lingers until your next sip. Great wine. Join the club, it’s worth it. New York is doing Merlot in a really wonderful way. Last episode, we talked about the Riesling happening in the Finger Lakes. Well, the Finger Lakes also does really great Cab Franc and Merlot. But Merlot really shines on Long Island, specifically on what’s called the North Fork of Long Island. It’s a bunch of old potato farms that are now vineyards, and it has a great climate. There’s actually a sign when you’re going to Long Island saying, “Last stop before Bordeaux,” because it’s across the ocean and stuff. But it’s a great place for Merlot, and I’m sure you’ll see some of that on the American market. OK, so it’s not California’s fault as a whole. In wine, it’s usually the human’s fault, not the wine’s fault, because the humans are the ones that make everything crazy. And this thing went crazy. Merlot, the world’s second most planted red grape, thrives in moderate to warm climates and varied terrains, especially clay soils. It offers a consistent profile of soft texture and ripe fruit flavors, but these can vary based on the region. Major Merlot regions include Bordeaux with rich, velvety wines; Tuscany’s full-bodied blends; California’s fruity, complex offerings; and Chile’s more restrained, medium-bodied wines. I appreciate Merlot for the simple fact that it generally plays in the middle. If you have folks that prefer light-bodied reds and those that prefer the heavier, bolder stuff, Merlot is almost always a great compromise. Medium levels of tannin, acid, body, and alcohol helps it bridge the gap between the wines at the ends of the spectrum. So while it doesn’t command the same prominence (nor price tag) as blending partner Cabernet Sauvignon, it has the ability to please a wide variety of palates. But when it comes to what I like to call “Mountain Merlot” the rules are a little different.Merlot is a great wine to play with, as it matches with a wide variety of foods. Don’t be afraid to experiment! What to expect: In Italy, especially Tuscany, Merlot is a darling partner to grapes like (surprise!) Cabernet Sauvignon, (alongside Sangiovese) in a style of wine lovingly named “Super Tuscan”. Super Tuscans can be a bit like Bordeaux on steroids. Outside of France, the grape is also grown in the Friuli region of Italy, as well as in Croatia, Slovenia, California, Washington State, and New York. Following the wine’s peak in popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it began to decline after being overly mass-produced and saturating the market, but, as Beavers explains, Merlot is worth a second try. The grape is used in many blends on the U.S. market — especially Pinot Noir, thanks to the 75 percent rule — meaning most are already consuming it, whether they are aware of it or not. And when it is done right, Merlot can be a beautiful, soft but round wine. Listen Online Actually, Merlot makes up 15 percent of the wine produced in Friuli. And sometimes they call it Merlott, with two “T”s at the end, because it’s part of their dialect. But what’s really interesting is there’s an actual agriturismo touring route called Strata de Merlot. It goes along one of the main rivers in Friuli, the Isonzo river. And you can travel along the river and you hit all these little towns and you drink Merlot the whole time. It’s real. It’s awesome. Outside of Friuli in northern Italy, Merlot has grown all over the place in the Veneto and the Trentino-Alto Adige, but significantly. Merlot plays a big role in the central part of Italy in Umbria. In Tuscany, in Chianti Classico, Merlot is allowed in their blends. And I have to say, there’s something really nice about a Merlot and a Sangiovese being blended together. Sangiovese has this crazy ripe cranberry and cherry thing going on, and Merlot comes in and softens and rounds it off. It’s just beautiful. Also in Bolgheri, which we’ve talked about before, Merlot is allowed in those blends and it softens the Cabernet that’s grown in that area. Just south of Tuscany in Umbria, there is a grape that’s native to that region called Sagrantino. It’s one of the most tannic varieties on the planet. It’s huge and ages forever. And sometimes, they blend that with Merlot and it’s just an amazing thing. What it does is it softens and keeps the depth, and it’s really an awesome blend. And they call that Montefalco Rosso, which is an appellation in Umbria. One thing about Bordeaux that I couldn’t mention in the Bordeaux episode is that the majority of the activity in old-school Bordeaux before the Médoc was even created, because it was created, took place mostly south of the town of Bordeaux. A lot of wine was made in Entre-Deux-Mers, that big swath of forested vineyard land, where all the white wine is made now.

So what does Merlot from Bordeaux taste like? You’ll find a unique mix of rich plum and distinct earthy notes and herbal nuances. The best wines have smoke and clove notes from oak aging. Here are two great appellations to find age-worthy Merlot. Merlot can be a bit of a chameleon; ranging from fruity, smooth and easy-going to age-worthy, full-bodied, and sophisticated. Often mistaken for its blending partner, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot is not one to be underestimated.

The first of the established mountain regions and maybe the most famous, Howell Mountain, with its west-facing vineyards is one of the warmer mountains regions as it gets the full exposure to the hot afternoon sun. This often translates into wines that are fuller-bodied with higher alcohol. With elevations from 1400 to 2600 feet, the region has predominantly volcanic soils that yield powerful, tannic, and age-worthy wines. Howell Mountain Merlot wines to try:

Often throughout these episodes, I have mentioned the variety Cabernet Franc, and I call it an orphan grape. And I never really explained what that means. We know that Cabernet Franc originated in the Basque region of Spain, where it was called Achéria. DNA profiling cannot find its parentage, so it’s an orphan grape. It appeared in the Basque region of Spain, and then it began to travel with humans, eventually making its way to the Bordeaux region. Total Vineyard Area – 658,387 acres (266,440 hectares) (data from 2016) Old Merlot vines from Vieux Château Certan in Pomerol. Bordeaux, France Despite its impressive qualities, Merlot has often played second fiddle to Cabernet Sauvignon, both in blends and in public opinion—a phenomenon that became particularly pronounced after the infamous ‘Sideways effect’. I love Merlot. I think it is such an awesome grape that makes awesome wine. It’s a workhorse around the world for blending, but there are places in the world outside of France that do 100 percent Merlot that is just stunning as well. If it’s done right, in the right soils, and the right climates, it is just beautiful. Even though the thing is it’s not really about aroma, you can get some blueberries sometimes, and there’s that peppery note that comes in, but it’s the texture of Merlot that is so wonderful. And one of those places in the world outside of France that makes Merlot this way is Italy. And not just Italy, Friuli. One day I should do a Friuli episode, am I right? The Merlot coming out of Friuli can be so wonderful. It’s often a 100 percent variety, sometimes it’s blended with Cab Franc, but the climate there and the soils and the slight elevation of their vineyards, just make the most beautiful Merlot. There actually is Merlot made on the lower plains area, which is a little more basic, but still beautiful and plump and juicy. But Merlot in Friuli is a thing, it’s not often available, but you should definitely try to seek it out, because that’ll give you a sense of what a 100 percent Merlot can taste like in one of its purest forms.

Now, for some credits. How about that? Wine 101 is recorded and produced by yours truly, Keith Beavers, at the VinePair headquarters in New York City. I want to give a big shout-out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Malin. I also want to thank Danielle Grinberg for making the most legit Wine 101 logo.

If you were to head north off the coast of the Basque region of Spain, you would be in the Bay of Biscay. And if you go straight north from the Basque region, the town called Bilbao, which is the capital of that region, you would hit the northwestern peninsula of France, which is called Brittany. Inland from the coast of Brittany is a town called Saint-Suliac (my French is terrible). Here, in the middle ages, was a monastery or an abbey — monks were everywhere around this time. And of course being monks, they had vineyards and it’s thought that the Cabernet Franc grape, at the time, made its way to Brittany. And then from Brittany down into the Loire Valley, then from the Loire Valley down into Bordeaux. As Beavers explains, the Merlot group came from two orphan grape varieties: Cabernet Franc and Madeleine. In France, Merlot is predominantly grown in Bordeaux, where it is celebrated for its blending abilities. In 1996, there was a vine sample that came from that little town Saint-Suliac from an abandoned vineyard on a slope called Mont Giroux. Brittany had abandoned all winemaking 200 years prior, actually to this day there’s only one vineyard in that area making wine. Nobody knew what this vine was, it didn’t even have a name. And then, a few years later in the Charente Department, which is just northeast of Bordeaux, this same vine was found on the front of four houses in four villages in that department. Is that cool, or what?

A bit about me…

Most weeks, we let either Thing 1 or Thing 2 choose the dinner meal for one day with the only rule that it can’t be hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, or tacos. Well they threw me for a loop and asked for a BLT. Hmm…OK. So we crafted BLTs on toasted brioche with bacon of course, mozzarella roasted tomatoes, along with a blend of radicchio, lettuce, and spinach (it’s still technically a BLT and I got to add in whatever veggies I wanted). We loved these wines with the BLT which needed a little ‘oomph’ that a red wine could provide but that was also fruit forward with some acidity. Seven Hills Merlot + Savory Bread Pudding Consisting of 100% Merlot, this one gives off baking spice, cedar, red plum, cherry and a touch of mocha. It is quite refined with bright acidity and fine grain tannins. An excellent food wine for sure. Founded in 1983 and regarded as one of the state’s premiere Merlot producers, L’Ecole N° 41 is one of Washington’s first artisan, family-owned wineries and the third winery to be established in Walla Walla. We opened two different bottles of L’Ecole N° 41 Merlot to have with dinner. I still remember the chance meeting at a restaurant when I met a wine rep for Lobo Wines and she told me all about winemaker Victoria Coleman. I was all in! There are many great wines out there, but when you find a wine story that speaks to you, that is what helps to make that wine more memorable. And I so loved Victoria’s story – and her wines – that I was thrilled to write about it all. While they use most of their Merlot to blend into the higher value Cab Sauv, they do use a small amount for a varietal Merlot. I still remember my first exposure to Keenan Winery at wine tasting when “The Corkscrew Concierge” first started really getting into wine. It was their Napa Valley Merlot, and it was a wine that made an impression on me. Robert Keenan Winery is nestled on the Mayacamas Mountain Range near the top of the spring Mountain District. The mountain estate is comprised of 48 acres of vineyard and they have been producing wine since 1977. If you’re looking for the “all mountain experience” then this is your wine. But know that even their “regular” Merlot is overwhelmingly Spring Mountain fruit (the 2019 vintage is 87%) with the rest coming from Carneros. Hard to go wrong with either. Diamond Mountain