Merlot

Merlot being a red wine grape it is used both as a blending grape & for a variety of wines. The name Merlot has been derived from an Old French word for a young black colored bird named Merlot, the bird has enjoyed a steady rise in its popularity as the demand for the soft and fruitful grape has soared.

Wines based on Merlot have a medium body with hints of plum, berry, and currant. Its fleshiness and softness, combined with early ripening, makes it a popular grape which is used for blending with the later-ripening, sterner Cabernet Sauvignon, which has a tendency to be a bit higher in tannin. Merlot's leaf has its flavour profile similar to the Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot is slightly more herbaceous & less distinctive in terms of both taste and aroma. The round, soft and fruitful Merlot grape has a flavour ranging from plum purple to cherry red. The grape is  slightly lower in tannin than the Cabernet Sauvignon & is used for the softening up of Cabernet in Bordeaux blends. Merlot grows at a moderate level, but must be reined in from setting by judicious pruning, often followed by many weeks of cluster thinning.

Merlot is grown in vineyards all around the world. It grows the best in the regions which are both sunny and chilly. Merlot was originated from  France in the Bordeaux region. It is the 3rd most planted 'red-grape' in France and is the 5th most planted red grape in Italy. Merlot is also grown incountries like Romania and on a smaller scale in Argentina, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Montenegro, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, South Africa and in some parts of the U.S such as Washington.

History

The history of the Merlot wine has been traced with stories of many crops being destroyed by flocks of birds. Unlike other types, Merlot grapes  can not tolerate bird damage. Merlot grapes as a fact do have some qualities apart from the fact that they make excellent wines.

The earliest noted mention of Merlot was in a local Bordeaux official's notes who in the year 1784 labeled that the wine made from that grape in the Libournais region was one of the best in the area. The naming came either due to the grape's beautiful dark-blue color, or because of the black-birds' fondness for that grape. By the 1800s it was regularly planted in the Medoc on the Left side Bank of the Gironde. After a series of unfortunate events including a severe frost in the year 1956 many vintages were lost to rot. Many of the vineyards were planted after the year of 1970 in response to the much-hyped health benefits of the red wine. Authorities in Bordeaux had banned new plantings of Merlot vines between the year 1970 and 1975.
The most famous producer of French Merlot wines in the World is Chateau Petrus and the '1990 Chateau Petrus Merlot wine' costs a staggering $1,700 per bottle.

Synonyms

Other names of merlot are:

Begney
Seme dou Flube
Bigney Rouge
Crabutet
Merlau
Medoc Noir
Merlot Noir
Langon
Merle Petite
Merlo
Merlott
Bigney
Odzalesi
Semillon Rouge
Plant du Medoc
Semilhoun Rouge
Petit Merle
Plant Medoc
Vitraille
Saint-Macaire
Seme de la Canau

Food Pairings

Among wine and food pairings, the diversity of the Merlot wine takes us to an extremely wide range of matching options. Cabernet-like Merlots go well along many of the things that the Cabernet Sauvignon would match well with like charred & grilled meats. Merlot can be paied with salads, pork, poultry, and salads too. Merlot is a very good accompaniment to beef and lamb dishes. It goes wonderfully well with spaghetti bolgnese and so also with a good steak.

The typical flavour which people prefer for a merlot is plum. It goes along with just about any of the medium-body dishes like pork chops and burgers. It is quite versatile when it comes to other food pairing options.

Fruitier and softer Merlots (those with high acidity levels from regions like Washington and Northeast Italy) share many of the food pairing possibilities with Pinot noir and go well with many dishes like mushrooms and salmon based dishes and green dishes like radicchio and chard.

The Light bodied Merlots go well with a variety of shellfish like scallops and prawns, specially when wrapped in foods like bacon and peperroni. Merlots however don't go well with strong and blue cheeses which sometime overwhelm the fruit flavours of the wine. The capsaicins of many spicy foods accentuate the perception of the alcohol content in Merlot making it taste more bitter.

Viticulture

The moerlot grape has a characteristic of quickly over-ripening once it hits its initial ripeness level, sometimes even in a matter of a few days. There are 2 schools of thought about the right time to harvest the Merlot grape. The wine makers belonging to Chateau Petrus prefer early picking to help maintain the wine's acidity and its finesse as well as the potential for aging. Some others prefer late picking and the added fruit body that comes along with a little bit of over ripeness.

Merlot grapes having higher sugar content are low in malic acid content. Merlot thrives in cold soil, mainly ferrous clay. The vine buds early which at times exposes it to a  risk of cold frost and its thinner skin increases its susceptibility to rot. If bad weather occurs in the flowering season , the vine of Merlot can develop coulure. It  ripens around 2 weeks earlier than the Cabernet Sauvignon variety. Water stress is an important factor to the vine with it thriving in a well drained soil more so than at the base of a slope. Pruning is one of the major components which helps determine the quality of the wine that has been produced. The age of the vine is also important, as older vines contribute character to the resultant wine.

Flavour Profile

A range of fresh flavors such as cherries, plums & blackberries mixed with cocoa and blackpepper tones quite often dominate this wine. The levels of tannin are  lower than the Cab and the fruit flavours are normally forward - making it a prime wine candidate for the consumers who are just newbies into wines. Merlot is often used to blend with varietals, such as Cabernet Franc & Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabs are softened, mellowed down a bit and the Merlot enjoys the priviledge to be more structured and defined.

Regions

Some of the best Merlot comes from  Bordeaux in France, the state of Washington, Napa and Sonoma Valleys, different parts of Italy, and Chile.
It has a star role in only one region, i.e. north of Bordeaux's Gironde River. The Chateau Petrus, which has risen in its consumer stature in the past three decades, is a major producer of Merlot. In South Gironde, merlot  plays a supporting role in typical Medoc blends with the cabernet sauvignon. Chateau Palmer in the medoc is  60% Merlot. In the sandy and clay-limestone based soils, Merlot accounts for 60% of the blend and is normally blended with Cabernet Franc.


Rest of Europe

In Italy, a major part of Merlot is planted in the Friuli region where it has been made a varietal and is sometimes even blended with Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc. While in the other parts of Italy, like Tuscany, it is blended with Sangiovese which gives it a similar softening effect just as the Bordeaux blends. The Strada del Merlot is a renowned tourist route through Merlot wine countries. Italian Merlots are mainly characterised on the basis of their herbal qualities and light bodies.


In Hungary, Merlot complements the Kadarka and Kekfrankos as a component of Bull's Blood. Among the Eastern European countries of Croatia, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania Merlot is produced as a whole bodied wine which is similar to the Cabernet Sauvignon. In the country of Switzerland, Merlot accounts for the majority of the wine production where it is made in a pale "white Merlot" style. In Spain, many winemakers are placing requests to the authorities to allow Merlot to be a permitted grape among the wines in the Rioja region.


United States

In its early history, the Merlot was primarily used as a varietal wine until a wine maker named Warren Winiarski took the grape back to its blending roots with the Bordeaux style blends. In California, Merlot ranges from fruity wines (referred by critics as "red Chardonnay") to the old barrel aged examples. While Merlot is produced throughout California, it is more prominent in the Napa and Sonoma County. In Napa, examples from Oakville, Mount Veeder and Rutherford show ripe black-berry and black-raspberry notes.


Merlots from Columbia Crest, Leonetti Cellar and Chateau Ste Michelle have demonstrated that the areas of East Washington are warm enough for red wine production. Today it is one of the most widely grown red wine grape and contributes for one fifth of the state's entire production. It is planted throughout the valley of Columbia and has earned itself particular notice from the plantations in Red Mountain, Walla Walla and the Horse Heaven Hills. The Merlots in Washington are known for their dark and deep colour and balanced acidity levels. Some other regions in the U.S. which produce significant quantities of Merlot wine are Oregon's Rogue Valley And New York State's Long Island.


Other World Regions

In New Zealand, the plantings have significantly increased along the Hawkes Bay area, specially in Gimblett Gravels where the grape has shown its ability to produce Bordeaux style wine. The grape is constantly growing as a favorite for the New Zealand producers due to its unique ability to ripen much better, with way less green flavours.In the country of Argentina, Merlot plantations have started to increase in the Mendoza region with the grape having shown an affinity to the Tupungato region of the Uco Valley.
In Australia, quite a few vineyards which were labeled as 'Merlot' were later discovered to be Cabernet Franc. A similar discovery was also made in the vineyards of  Duckhorn Vineyards. In South Africa, the plantings of Merlot are more focused on cooler sites within the Stellenbosch and Paarl regions where they grow quite easily.
Merlot grows fairly well in the Apalta region of Colchagua in Chile. It is also produced in significant quantities in the Casablanca and the Maipo Valley.