In Defense of Merlot
Last Thursday I met with our vineyard manager, Jenaro Robledo, and we talked a bit about winegrowing and the glut of bulk wine currently on the market. Jenaro relayed to me that growers in Lake County and elsewhere can’t sell Merlot for even $350 a ton. Quite literally, they can’t give the grapes away.
Then I read this interesting article over at . Merlot growers are undoubtedly having a hard time right now. I feel for them because replanting to new cultivars takes time and market forces are often fickle.
So, instead of piling on, I thought I’d do my part to help burnish the image of the once proud Merlot grape.
Miles Loves Merlot, and You Should Too
As countless others have pointed out, Merlot took a big hit due to the movie Sideways. Pinot Noir is often characterized as having benefited at Merlot’s expense due to Mile’s passion for Pinot and apparent aversion to Merlot (”I won’t drink any %@$!-ing Merlot!”). However, Miles is a deeply flawed character (steals from his mom, is an alcoholic, etc.), so the producers decided to have some fun with him and did a bang-up job in portraying him as a Class-A hypocrite. In the movie, Miles proves, without a doubt, that he absolutely adores Merlot, though you may have missed it.
The ‘61 Cheval Blanc that Miles drinks by himself out of a plastic cup in the diner at the end of the film - one of his all time favorite wines - is a blend of Merlot and Cab Franc. The producers wanted to have the wine be a bottle of Petrus, but the famed French Merlot producer backed out after reading the script. Still the point is clear: Miles is a fraud.
So next time you hear someone bashing Merlot and bringing up Sideways as the reason why, do your part for the poor Merlot farmers and enlighten the poor schlub.
Miles loves Merlot, and you should too.
