What's wrong with Merlot?

[wattacetti]

Sort of the wine equivalent of a Twinkie...

←

Thanks, I've just blown chunks all over my portable.

Pam: There are quite a few good Merlots at several price points which will show off what the grape can do given a good vintner; obviously harder in the sub-$15 category but you'd at least have some fun doing it. The one I've had most recently was a 2000 Château St. Jean (Sonoma, < $50 Cdn): it's well made and definitely not a Twinkie.

[Mark Sommelier]

A well known California winemaker once told me that merlot is the new white zinfandel. As a result of "Sideways", I think pinot noir is now the new merlot.

[ademello]

It's more of a character quirk. Miles was so much of a wine geek, that he placed his interest and preferences in wine far ahead of the intended goal of the evening (to entertain the ladies). His disaste for merlot is just a character trait to show the audience just how opinionated one man can be about wine. More cynically, I also it was designed to appeal to all the wine snobs out here that blanket all merlots as bland and a general waste of calories.

Taste is taste. Petrus is 95% merlot, and I'm sure that despite the fact that some people believe it to be the uber-wine, it will still be "just a merlot" to others.

[derricks]

I think the folks here have the right of it: not all Merlot is bad, but too often it is.

That said, my wife and I really like the Rock River Merlot. It's flavorful and rich and a counterexample to all the uninteresting Merlots out there. And it's $8 or so. Not sure how wide its distribution is: I believe it's an East Coast producer, but I've only ever seen it at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant. When they featured it in their wine club, they had a hard time keeping it in stock, because people (including us) were buying it by the caseload. They seem to have reached equilibrium, though, as we normally see some when we're in there.

And I've really got to see this movie.

[Brad Ballinger]

The knock on Merlot (as a wine, not a grape) in the film and among wine lovers who wish to think of themselves as "evolved," is that the wine is too pedestrian. It is produced in a way that is forwardly fruity (but so are many California red wines) and soft with respect to tannin and acidity. In essence, much of the Merlot in the market today could be classified as McWine.

As such, it's fashionable to disdain it. Much the same way Chardonnay was disdained before Merlot, and White Zinfandel before Chardonnay. I'm not so sure Pinot Noir will be next -- my money is on Syrah, or Shiraz (as some California wineries are labeling it nowadays).

From a business standpoint, retailers and restaurants can sell more Merlot right now than they can Pinot Noir or, in some cases, Cabernet Sauvignon. Undoubtedly, some wineries produce Merlot to help out the general ledger.

There are some who say "merlot is nothing but a blending grape." Apart from certain Right-Bank Bordeaux wines, they may have an argument. But if Merlot (or substitute Chardonnay or White Zinfandel or whatever) gets people interested in and drinking wine, I don't see that as a bad thing.

[MaxH]

Is this just a character quirk? Or is there some real reason why anyone would look down their noses at Merlot?

←

Very real. Until around 1980, the Merlots that most wine drinkers in the US heard about were not called Merlots, they were called Pomerols or some other geographical name from the regions that popularized this grape. Or they were blended with Cabernets and others.

Harvey Steiman's article in November 1981, "Merlot -- the coming red revolution" -- I still have copies on file! -- was one that marked the new growth of marketing this grape variety on its own. A few excellent and a lot of insipid, highly inoffensive wines have come from it since. I find many experienced red-wine drinkers turned off from it very naturally, for that reason.

Last night, one of them said that Merlot had become the latest "white zinfandel" -- another symbol -- and asked "why can't they make white merlot?"

[Jason Perlow]

Having not seen the movie, I have to admit, I am of much the same opinion.

The simple fact of my opinion is that most of the merlots in my price point, especially ones that I would purchase at a restaurant, are low-end industro-plonk made a million bottles at a time.  They have grapey-winey character analogous a McDonald's hamburger having a beefy-burgery character.  It's there, but it has had the magic beaten out of it. 

Sort of the wine equivalent of a Twinkie... I await for people to show me the Merlot way.  It is a wine I love to hate (much like Jason Perlow loves to hate Beaujolais Nouveau)

←

I hate Merlot as well. Yet another mass produced plonk varietal that is subject to tremendous oak abuse.

This is not to say that all Merlot wines are bad. I'm not gonna condemn the entire Bordeaux region, of course. But I'd say most of the Merlot produced on this planet is pretty gross.

[carswell]

This subject was discussed a year and a half ago in a thread with exactly the same title: What's wrong with Merlot?. Excuse the self-citation, but it is my answer to your question:

The parallels between merlot and chardonnay are intriguing. Compared with many other grapes [...] both are relatively bland, characterless. Both produce great wines in only a handful of locations and those mainly in France. Most of the wine made from both is insipid or worse. And yet they are the most popular varietals in North America.

Edit by Jason Perlow: Topic merged

Edited January 30, 2005 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

Is this just a character quirk? Or is there some real reason why anyone would look down their noses at Merlot?

←

Last night, one of them said that Merlot had become the latest "white zinfandel" -- another symbol -- and asked "why can't they make white merlot?"

←

Its been done already.

[MaxH]

it's fashionable to disdain it.  Much the same way Chardonnay was disdained before Merlot, and White Zinfandel before Chardonnay.

←

I agree with much of what Brad posted but -- keeping in mind that I know a different set of people -- I seriously have never met anyone who disdains these wines because it is fashionable to do so.

I've known people (continuously) who disliked California Chardonnays because they had tried wines of that grape from other places and found many California products mechanistically over-oaked and stylistically limited. And people who disdained White Zinfandel throughout its limited history, because they found it dull and sweet. These are complaints of substance, not fashion. (I do agree these wines may get some people interested, and thus gradually contribute to narrowing the gap in wine consumption between the US and the "wine-drinking" countries. During just my own wine-drinking experience this has changed from around 1:12 to maybe 1:8, when comparing the consumption per capita in the same set of countries in the Wine Institute data.)

[pam claughton]

I didn't realize this had been asked already, sorry! Very interesting responses though, thank you.

To echo the thought that someone else already mentioned about how Merlot is so popular that it might at least get people introduced to wine. I have to agree, as I am one of the ones who came to wine via Sutter Home White Zinfandel.

It's funny, but for some reason I've noticed that many first drinks whether cocktails or wine, tend to be sweet, kind of an easing in of the drinker as their palate adjusts and then improves. My first cocktails were the sickly sweet Sloe Gin Fizzes and Whiskey Sours, and for wine the candy sweet white zin, which I cannot stomach now.

Maybe Merlot is similar, for new red wine drinkers....

[KatieLoeb]

I didn't realize this had been asked already, sorry!  Very interesting responses though, thank you.

To echo the thought that someone else already mentioned about how Merlot is so popular that it might at least get people introduced to wine. I have to agree, as I am one of the ones who came to wine via Sutter Home White Zinfandel.

←

I always try to get the White Zin drinking ladies to "take off their training wheels" and branch out to a nice glass of Riesling or Chenin Blanc.

It's funny, but for some reason I've noticed that many first drinks whether cocktails or wine, tend to be sweet, kind of an easing in of the drinker as their palate adjusts and then improves.  My first cocktails were the sickly sweet Sloe Gin Fizzes and Whiskey Sours, and for wine the candy sweet white zin, which I cannot stomach now.

Maybe Merlot is similar, for new red wine drinkers....

This hardly comes as a revelation to me. The last several generations have been raised on Coca-Cola and sugary cereals. Now they aren't only all obese and suffering from diabetes, but their tastes in wine have been forever tainted for the worse.

Add to this a culture in which wine is not a daily beverage, but a "special occasion" beverage or "forbidden fruit" (so to speak) and it's no surprise that oceans of sweet plonk are both consumed and presumed to be the standard for each variety of wine once consumers are old enough to purchase wine legally.

[andiesenji]

It is not true that if people begin drinking junk wines they are doomed forever to continuing down that road. I have known more than a few people in the wine business from the root to the table and except for a very few exceptions, they all comment that they do not care what kind of wine people start out drinking, as long as they do drink wine. Because there is a chance that eventually they will venture out from the familar base to different, more exotic, more expensive and notable wines, however if they never drink wine at all or are discouraged by being put-down for their plebian tastes, they will not make that step into the more rarefied atmosphere.

One vintner said that a palate can always be educated but a person with a rigid mind set and not willing to try the mundane along with the supeior, might miss out on something that could be extraordinary.

He said that on his travels he had tasted a great many unremarkable wines but these were also inoffensive and probably attractive to an uneducated palate because of the lack of assertive flavor. Some had promise with appropriate aging in the bottle and he was in the habit of buying a bottle or two of the latter and putting them by to see just how they would mature.

One of his pet peeves were people who wrote off an entire category or year of wines simply because they had become popular with the "masses," which he said was the worst type of pomposity and arrogance. He had nothing but scorn for the "ivory tower" wine critics who had only bad things to say about the wines from a particular region because they just weren't doing their jobs, too lazy to really get out and do comparison tasting in the field.

He has now passed on to the great vineyard in the sky, but he always said that every glass of wine that passed his lips taught him something, whether the wine itself was good, bad, mediocre, extraordinary or sublime.

[Capaneus]

Having not seen the movie, I have to admit, I am of much the same opinion.

The simple fact of my opinion is that most of the merlots in my price point, especially ones that I would purchase at a restaurant, are low-end industro-plonk made a million bottles at a time.  They have grapey-winey character analogous a McDonald's hamburger having a beefy-burgery character.  It's there, but it has had the magic beaten out of it. 

Sort of the wine equivalent of a Twinkie... I await for people to show me the Merlot way.  It is a wine I love to hate (much like Jason Perlow loves to hate Beaujolais Nouveau)

←

I hate Merlot as well. Yet another mass produced plonk varietal that is subject to tremendous oak abuse.

This is not to say that all Merlot wines are bad. I'm not gonna condemn the entire Bordeaux region, of course. But I'd say most of the Merlot produced on this planet is pretty gross.

←

Bordeaux thanks you, I thank you, and common sense... well, it's on vacation, clearly, but it would probably be thankful as well.

The problem with with your formulation, and with this discussion (as I see it, of course) is that 99% of *everything* is crap. Look at your wine industry statistics: the overwhelming majority of wine is marketed at price points most of us don't even look at - and I'm *not* speaking of Screaming Eagle! Most wine around the world is sold at prices barely above Welch's, and drunk with little more thought.

And the same argument applies to most Art, and most Literature... and most Cabernet Sauvignon; and most white Burgundy (and the red while we're at it)... DOC wine is a barely discernible percent of the industry, and the overwhelming majority of all wine produced even in those areas is purest plonk.

The stuff we love and discuss is, from the get-go, a tiny if tasty little bubble afloat in a massive flood of purpley-grapey sewage. Yet we choose to speak of Chardonnay and Merlot as if they were somehow exceptional in being very rarely any good. They're not. I love German Rieslings, despite the fact that finding good ones I can afford is a never-ending struggle. Cabernets are even harder, because they are so much more sought after. Yet most of us, for whatever reason, will simply not concede the same effort is worthwhile when it comes to these two varietals.

It's possible the difference stems from something other than knee-jerk prejudice, but I for one cannot see how that case might be made.

And if California Pinot becomes somehow debased by this publicity I'll cry. I find more bargains in that category these days than anywhere else in the wine store (with the possible exception of Iberian reds).

Edited January 31, 2005 by Capaneus (log)

[jsolomon]

It's funny, but for some reason I've noticed that many first drinks whether cocktails or wine, tend to be sweet, kind of an easing in of the drinker as their palate adjusts and then improves.  My first cocktails were the sickly sweet Sloe Gin Fizzes and Whiskey Sours, and for wine the candy sweet white zin, which I cannot stomach now.

Maybe Merlot is similar, for new red wine drinkers....

←

The wine that got me hooked on drinking wine was port. To each his or her own.

But, to clarify what I said that I have seen taken out of context once on this thread is that when I look for wine, I generally look for wine that is less than US $15. There simply aren't many merlots in that area that I'll spend my money on. There aren't that many great wines in that area, period. But there are wines that make me happy. I just keep my eyes open and figure out who makes what I like and branch from there.

But as for Merlot, I don't follow that branch around US $15. I'll be forever disappointed, IMO. But, I wouldn't ditch a date who ordered it. I'd just help her finish it fast and order a second bottle more to my liking

[Coop]

There are few bad grapes, just bad people. Even Ugni Blanc has a place, not in table wine but in Cognac. Here in BC you could substitute Merlot with Aussie Shiraz. We have a river of it for around $15.00, it's greatest sin is lack of originality.

Merlot is one of my new favorites, after avoiding it for years. Lamaione, Massetto, Montiano and that's just from Italy!

[Mark Sommelier]

There are few bad grapes, just bad people. Even Ugni Blanc has a place, not in table wine but in Cognac. Here in BC you could substitute Merlot with Aussie Shiraz. We have a river of it for around $15.00, it's greatest sin is lack of originality.

Merlot is one of my new favorites, after avoiding it for years. Lamaione, Massetto, Montiano and that's just from Italy!

←

Ugni Blanc is in Armagnac. Folle Blanche is in Cognac.

[Brad Ballinger]

Merlot is one of my new favorites, after avoiding it for years. Lamaione, Massetto, Montiano and that's just from Italy!

←

Montiano just doesn't do much for me. I have a tasting note on the 1999 I have to get around to posting. One you should look for, however, is Lazzicante by Rodano, a Tuscany producer.

[MaxH]

It's funny, but for some reason I've noticed that many first drinks whether cocktails or wine, tend to be sweet, kind of an easing in of the drinker as their palate adjusts and then improves.  My first cocktails were the sickly sweet Sloe Gin Fizzes and Whiskey Sours, and for wine the candy sweet white zin, which I cannot stomach now.

Maybe Merlot is similar, for new red wine drinkers....

... The last several generations have been raised on Coca-Cola and sugary cereals. Now they aren't only all obese and suffering from diabetes, but their tastes in wine have been forever tainted ...

There's more to that. Without disputing that people in North America (among other regions) lean too far on sweet drinks, on the other hand this is an instinctive behavior. We are born to discern sweet (and edible) fruit from sour (unripe) or bitter (toxic) flavors. To appreciate fermented juice (which in the wild means overripe, spoiled) is uninstinctive, learned behavior. People have to acquire a taste for wine; they are born with a taste for fruit juices (and their various modern stand-ins).

Also the negative side of broad-brush rejections of Merlot is that they overlook what the grape variety can do in good or classic examples. (You may find that the newer the expert, the broader the brush.)

-- Max

--

"... drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."

[GordonCooks]

A well known California winemaker once told me that merlot is the new white zinfandel. As a result of "Sideways", I think pinot noir is now the new merlot. 

←

No, not until Vendage bottles it in 1.5Ls - then it's official.

[ctgm]

Here in the UK I think that people are just getting a little bored of Merlot. Producers, especially from Chile, are selling their wines purely on grape type rather than terroir, producer, etc etc. I think that this leads to a lot of mediocre wine that could have had a little more attention lavished upon it rather than producing a very soft and characterless wine that follows a set formula to be punter friendly (rather than show any imagination).

To me it is getting like Pinot Grigio (although not as bad). Here in the UK people like drinking Pinot Grigio but if you asked them who the producer was and any details about the wine they would have no clue at all - the variety is far more important to them. As a result the only decent Pinot Grigio that I have ever had is not Italian and is a (Tokay) Pinot Gris.

[MaxH]

Here in the UK ... Producers, especially from Chile, are selling their wines purely on grape type rather than terroir, producer, etc etc. I think that this leads to a lot of mediocre wine that could have had a little more attention lavished upon it rather than producing a very soft and characterless wine that follows a set formula to be punter friendly (rather than show any imagination).

... Here in the UK people like drinking Pinot Grigio but if you asked them who the producer was and any details about the wine they would have no clue at all - the variety is far more important to them.

That is very interesting perspective. Could you repeat it more loudly, for the benefit of wine newbies across the Atlantic who've been heard (in recent years) on popular wine Web sites, demanding that the rest of the world fall in with varietal labeling so they can "know what is in the bottle?"

(Until very recently, the solution to that problem was to learn about wine...)

[Sillman]

Try some Merlots from Washington State. With the warm days and cool nights Merlot from this region tends to hold more interest than California Merlot. Don't get me wrong California does make some nice Merlots (e.g Pride) but look out for NW producers like Andrew Will, L'Ecole, Barnard Griffin & Bookwalter.

Cheers,

Simon

[Rebel Rose]

Simon, we're happy to have you joining us!

I am at this very moment enjoying a L'Ecole No. 41 2002 Seven Hills Vineyard Merlot from the Walla Walla Valley. The bottle was supposed to make it home to Paso Robles but it's obviously not going to.

I opened it earlier this evening to share with my siblings (our last night together), and I am now relaxing with a little quiet eGullet time and the last of the bottle, before leaving for Bellingham tomorrow.

Wow. That was my first impression. (Sophisticated evaluation is difficult with five laughing, singing, wrestling kids underfoot.)

89% Merlot, 6% Cab Sauv., 5% Cab Franc. 14.3% alcohol. $34.95 at an Olympia wine shop.

Beautiful deep ruby color, with aromas of cherry underlined with a distinctive oak profile that I guessed would be a combination of neutral French and American, but a quick visit to the website shows me it's 60% new. So I was totally wrong. I was right about the unfiltered, unfined though.

While the aroma is somewhat two-dimensional, it's too enticing to linger over, and the first sip hits me with a wallop of full cherry fruit, zingy acidity, cinnamon-like tannins, and just enough oak to be interesting. I would say the winery's description is spot on, except that I didn't get the mint or floral components. It's deep enough to enjoy on it's own, and the brisk acidity will pair well with food.

The alcohol is in balance with the other components, and provides an intriguing cherry/strawberry liqueur finish.

[jbonne]

while i don't spend a lot of time drinking domestic merlot (just not my thing), have to agree there's a lot of good stuff coming out of WA.

RR, if you liked L'Ecole, you might try and hunt down a bottle of Reininger (just down the road from L'Ecole), or the Walla Walla Vintners merlot and cuvee.

also the Owen Sullivan, if there's any around. personally, i prefer the BSH, but the Ulysses and M are both merlot-based stunners.

[edited to add specific wine names.]

Edited February 15, 2005 by jbonne (log)