| Merlot is a red wine grape that is used as a | | | | made from the Carmenere grape as Merlot. In |
| blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based | | | | that year, genetic studies exposed that much of |
| wines typically have average body with trace of | | | | what had been grown as Merlot was actually |
| berry, plum, and currant. Its softness and | | | | Carmenere. The classification of Chilean Merlot is a |
| stoutness, combined with its earlier ripening, | | | | catch-all to include wine that is made from a blend |
| makes Merlot a model grape to blend with the | | | | of random amounts of Merlot and Carmenere. |
| sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon. This | | | | With Merlot ripening 3 weeks earlier than |
| suppleness has helped to make it one of the | | | | Carmenere, these wines vary significantly in |
| most popular red wine varietals in the United | | | | eminence depending on harvesting. |
| States and Chile. | | | | Merlot grapes are identified by their loose bunches |
| The most basic recorded mention of Merlot was | | | | of large berries. The color has less of a blue/black |
| in the remarks of a local Bordeaux official who in | | | | shade than Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and with a |
| 1784 labeled wine made from the grape in the | | | | thinner skin; the grapes also have less tannins. In |
| Libournais region as one of the area's best. The | | | | addition to a contrast against Cabernet, a Merlot |
| name comes from the French provincial patois | | | | grape tends to have higher sugar content and |
| word Merlot, meaning young blackbird. By the 19th | | | | lower malic acid. Merlot prospers in cold soil, |
| century it was being frequently planted in the | | | | mostly ferrous clay. The vines have a tendency |
| Médoc on the Left Bank of the Gironde. It | | | | to bud early which gives it some hazard to cold |
| was originally confirmed in Italy around Venice | | | | frost and its thin skin increases its vulnerability to |
| under the synonym Bordò in 1855. The | | | | rot. It normally ripens up to two weeks earlier |
| grape was launched into the Swiss, sometime in | | | | than Cabernet Sauvignon. Water stress is |
| the 19th century and was recorded in the Swiss | | | | important to the vine with it thriving in well |
| canton of Ticino between 1905 and 1910. | | | | drained soil more so than at base of a slope. |
| "Researchers at University of California, Davis | | | | Merlot was popular, but then took a dip because |
| believe that the grape is an offspring of Cabernet | | | | of the movie Sideways. Throughout the film, Miles |
| Franc and is a sibling of | | | | addresses dotingly of the red wine varietal Pinot |
| Carménère." | | | | Noir. Following the film's U.S. release in October |
| After a sequence of delays that consist of a | | | | 2004, Merlot sales dropped 2% while Pinot Noir |
| severe frost in 1956 and several vintages in the | | | | sales increased 16% in the Western United |
| 1960s lost to rot, French authorities in Bordeaux | | | | States. A related trend transpired in British wine |
| banned new plantings of Merlot vines between | | | | outlets. Sales of Merlot plummeted after the film's |
| 1970 and 1975. Until 1993, the Chilean wine | | | | release most likely due to Miles' disapproving |
| industry incorrectly sold a large quantity of wine | | | | remarks about the varietal in the film. |