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What's the Matter with
Merlot?
Courtesy of
30 Second Wine Advisor
By
Robin GarrMerlot, a classic French wine
grape and a key player in the Bordeaux varietal blend, a grape of
noble lineage and even gravitas, suddenly a laughingstock? Who knew?
Indeed, one of the biggest laugh lines in the movie
Sideways, at least for the cognoscenti,
comes when the twitchy, neurotic character Miles, looking for an
excuse to avoid a sociable dinner with his buddy Jack and a pair of
wine-country hotties, announces, "If anyone orders Merlot, I'm
leaving. I am not drinking any #%*$ing Merlot!"
Although the wine industry hasn't reported a dip in Merlot sales
to correspond with the trendy status that the recent wine-geek movie
inspired for Pinot Noir, there's little question that Pinot is in
while Merlot is out these days.
What's up with that? As one reader wrote recently, "May be a dumb
question, but why did the wine geek hate Merlot so much?"
The short answer, I told him, is that Miles probably doesn't
really hate Merlot as much as he thinks. In fact, the most prized
bottle in his collection is not a Pinot Noir at all but 1961 Cheval
Blanc, the wine that he hoarded, then finally opened and consumed
from a paper cup in a diner, signaling perhaps that his life is
finally moving on. This great wine, in fact, is one-third Merlot and
two-thirds Cabernet Franc, another grape that Miles spoke of with
disdain.
What we really see in Miles's anti-Merlot rant is a bit of wine
snobbery. Merlot has become one of the most popular cheap,
mass-market wine varieties - some wits nickname it "the Red
Chardonnay" because so many casual wine drinkers call for it by
name. And in its least-common- denominator form, a lot of Merlot is
indeed sourced from greedily over- produced vineyards and vinified
in a soft, sweetish and blowzy crowd- pleasing style that does not
please "connoisseurs" like Miles.
But you don't have to pay Cheval Blanc prices to get decent
Merlot.
Check published tasting reports or compare notes with wine-loving
friends, in person or online, and you can find plenty of Merlot that
shouldn't make any wine lover run away.
Today's wine, for example, Clos Pegase 2000 Mitsuko's Vineyard
Carneros Napa Valley Merlot, has nothing to apologize for. Grown in
the cool climate of Carneros, the bayside southern edge of Napa and
Sonoma, it's easy-to-drink, all right, but presents luscious
chocolate-covered-cherry Merlot character in a wine of good balance
and subtlety, with sufficient personality to reward contemplation
... fully competitive with, well, Pinot Noir in the same price
range. |
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CLOS PEGASE 2000 MITSUKO'S VINEYARD CARNEROS NAPA VALLEY MERLOT
($19.99)
This is an inky dark reddish-purple wine with the classic
chocolate- covered-cherry aroma profile of a good New World Merlot,
not over-the- top but pleasant and inviting. Similar on the palate,
it opens with ripe black fruit, plums and tart cherries with a rich,
earthy back note of bittersweet dark chocolate. Fruit and acidity
are in good balance; tannins are present but so smooth that they
fade seamlessly into the fruit, which remains clean and consistent
in a long finish. There's no need to snob on this Merlot: It's
eminently drinkable and finds a good midpoint between New World and
Old World styles. (April 16, 2005)
FOOD MATCH: Fine with an herbal, aromatic Italian-style
chicken dish from Marcella Hazan, a split chiclen pan-roasted with
herbs and garlic, then finished in a hot oven with a coating of
grated Parmigiano.
VALUE: A decent value at this price, although some online
merchants offer it for a few dollars less.
WHEN TO DRINK: There's no hurry to drink up this nicely
balanced wine. It's delicious now, and its good fruit-acid balance
suggests that it will hold and perhaps gain complexity with a few
years of cellar time.
PRONUNCIATION:
Merlot = "Mair-lo"
Clos Pegase = "Cloh Peh-gahss"
WEB LINK: The Clos Pegase Website (another of those
corporate sites that requires the visitor to click an entry button
swearing that you're over 21), offers good content and depth about
the winery and its wines as well as online and wine club sales where
the law permits.
http://www.clospegase.com/
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE: Find vendors and compare prices for
Clos Pegase Merlot on
Wine-Searcher.com.
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