The Wrap-Up: The Case for the Merlot Comeback

Six episodes, five regions, and one grape that has spent twenty years fighting an unfair reputation built on a movie and some mediocre California wine. Sunday's wrap-up makes the full case for Merlot's rehabilitation: the recap from Pomerol to Washington State, a personal top five bottles across all regions covered, a three-sentence cheat sheet, and a look ahead at what's coming next on The Daily Decant.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Daily Decant, your five-minute briefing on the world of wine. Each episode delivers practical insights to help you choose, order, and talk about wine with more confidence in everyday social settings. Let's get into today's Decant. It's Sunday and we are wrapping up Merlot Week, and I want to open what the argument this week has been building in its most direct form. Merlot was never the problem. The problem was what people were doing with it. Hot climate sites, excessive irrigation, high yields, industrial winemaking designed to produce large quantities of soft, commercially appealing wine without any particular character or sense of place. Those things produced the Merlot that sideways satirized, and the criticism was fair. But applying that criticism to the grape itself was always a category error, just like dismissing Pinot Noir because of bad red burgundy. The grape is not the wine. The place, the producer, the approach determine the wine. So let's recap the week. Monday, we did the full sideways story, including a delicious irony that Miles, persol, holy grail wine was made from the grape he declared he would never drink. Tuesday, Bordeaux's right bank, where Patreuse, even hectic acres of blue clay producing 100% Merlot at some of the highest prices in the world, made the most sustained centuries-long argument that the grape belongs in any conversation about the greatest wines on earth. Cheval Blanc, Trotinoi, in the broader Pomerol and St. Million Appalachians, filled in the picture. Wednesday, California, where Deckhorn Vineyards spent nearly 50 years making the case for Napa Merlot without apology or detour, anchored by three palms vineyard bottling that represented the ceiling of what California can produce with this grape. Thursday, we talked Washington State, where the Columbia Valley and Walla Walla's dramatic during all temperature variation, volcanic soils, and long summer days have quietly built a world-class Merlot tradition anchored by Leonetti Stellar, and a growing list of producers demonstrating that American Merlot's best expression may not be a Napa at all. Friday, the global picture, anchored by Maseto, the single most compelling argument that Merlot doesn't need Bordeaux or California to achieve greatness, made from blue clay soils on the Tuscan coasts that bear a striking resemblance to the soils of Patreuse and have produced comparable complexity and critical acclaim in a completely different setting. Plus, Chilean value plays and the broader evidence that this grape thrives in a wider range of conditions than its critics ever acknowledged. My personal top five Merlots from across this week. Number one, Patruse, the definitive argument that wine has spent over its century providing the grape's ceiling is limitless. Number two, Duckhorn Three Palms Vineyard Merlot, the American bottle that most consistently makes you forget that you're not drinking right bank Bordeaux. Number three, Leonetti Cellar Merlot, Washington State's most compelling case for the variety, one of the most perfectly structured American res being made anywhere. Number four, Masito, because the Tuscan coast has no business making wine this good from a grape this misunderstood, and yet here we are. Number five, Lacole number 41. Walla Walla Merlot because the best value propositions matter, and this one consistently delivers at a price point that makes it an easy, competent purchase. So your three-sentence Merlot cheat sheet for the week. One, Merlot's bad reputation was built on over-planted, over-irrigated California wine from the 1990s and a single line of movie dialogue, and it has never accurately reflected what the grape achieves in the right conditions. From Palmares Boot Clay to Washington State's volcanic soils to the Tuscan Coast. Two, the quality tier to know runs from basic everyday Merlot and broad appellations to the at the bottom through excellent Washington State from producers like Leonetti and Lacolte number 41, from Napa and Deckhorn in the middle, up through the extraordinary ripen Bordeaux wines and Mesito, where the grapes reaches its absolute ceiling at prices that compete with anything in the wine world. 3. The best everyday Merlot right now is Washington State at $20 to $40, and the best value gateway for someone new to taking the grape seriously is Columbia Crest Grand Estates at $15 or Deckhorn's decoy label at around $22. Both will show you something more interesting than their reputation suggests. Next week, something genuinely different and probably unexpected. Stay tuned to find out what's coming, and until then, order a Merlot tonight. You know, enough now to order a good one. And when you do, try this. Tell the person you're with that you're having a Merlot, wash their face, and if they wrinkle their nose or say something dismissive, hand them the glass anyways. Let the wine make the argument. It has been making that argument for centuries in the cellars of Patreuse, on the slopes of Mosito, in the vineyards of Malawala, quietly and without apology. This week we just finally listened. Best today's Daily Decant. If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe and share with your friends so you can continue building your wine knowledge in just a few minutes a day. See you tomorrow for the next decant.