The New Wining and Dining Password

“Make It a Glass of Merlot”

It may seem hard to believe but serious and sophisticated drinking of California wines really began about 36 years ago. In an acrimonious split, Robert Mondavi left his family owned Charles Krug winery in St; Helena to start The Robert Mondavi winery down the road in Oakville. He embarked on an amazingly rapid and successful quest to produce premium wines that would stand up to the French reds from Bordeaux made primarily with the Cabernet Sauvignon grape and the whites from Burgundy made with Chardonnay grapes.

“Cabs” quickly became the choice of the “nouveau” wine sophisticates.  A bit later, food choices became lighter and California Chardonnay such as Chateau Montelena and Trefethen gained victories over some French white Burgundies in varied blind tasting.  Where wine is offered by the glass, the phrase “I’ll have a glass of Chardonnay please” became the password.

Chardonnay planting exploded, somewhat indiscriminately, and the wine is now by far the primary grape planted in California. Unfortunately it has resulted in a lot of wines in a bottle that belong in a box. That is what you often get if you don’t or can’t specify the label. You wind up paying $5-6 a glass for stuff the costs the restaurant or bar 50 cents.

But a new “hired gun” recently rode into town from France and the scenario is similar. It goes by the single moniker of Merlot. If you like to sidle up to the bar with Merlot, you might want to know a little bit about your new friend.

As with the great French wines such as The Grand Crus of Cheval Blanc and Petrus from the Pomerol area of Bordeaux, Merlot was primarily used here in small proportions to soften the tannic strength of better Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  It is still offered rarely on its own in France.

However, the name Merlot romantically rolled easily off the tongue and soon some adventuresome California vintners decided to see if it was a straight shooter.  Ten years ago there were 4,000 acres of Merlot. Today there are 40,000 acres. The story repeats itself. In the run for quick profits most of these acres are in areas that do not have the climate or terra that can produce decent Merlot.

Also as with all things that come to market quickly, Merlot has not had the years of fine tuning as a free standing wine that has been imposed upon Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc. Thus while it is possible to find some great and satisfying Merlot, you may have to pay $40 to $80 a bottle. If you sold Enron and K-Mart short and therefore are a smart gamer, you may want to find out how very good Merlot should taste. The names to look for and can be found are Pride Reserve Claret and Duckhorn or Beringer Howell Mountain.

But the rest of us may be only willing to pay $20 to $40 or less for a bottle. At those prices, in many cases we will wind up with a wine whose appeal may be softness but will be rather bland and lacking character. Unfortunately that is what exists in most Merlot today . Further, the choices are narrow. If you are truly serious about Merlot, you can find some great wine values. However, you may have to do some digging and in many cases go to your local wine merchant for help

My 4 choices for best buys that actually can be found are St. Clement Napa Valley ($26), Chateau St. John Sonoma County Merlot ($22), Iron Horse Alexander Valley ($30) and Kenwood Merlot, Jack London Vinyard ($30). For the fun of it you might opt for Rosenthal Malibu-Newton Canyon ($34) right in your own back yard.

Below that, most of the Merlots taste like wine in a box Cabernets. There are three exceptions and they are on some shelves. The absolute best low end choice  in Merlot is from “Dreaded” Gallo of Sonoma ($11). The other two choices are Wente Livermore Valley Crane Ridge Reserve ($16) and Wild Horse Paso Robles ($14). Some Merlot has been produced in Australia to retail here at under $10. At that price they are worth a taste try.