Merlot Wine is produced from the Merlot red wine grape. This Grape is traditionally used as a blending grape and also for specific varietal wines. It features a soft medium bodied character that is well suited for blending with less “fluffy” varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon with higher quantities of tannin which counterbalance the merlot’s plummy and berry notes.

The name Merlot might well be based on the French word for a young Blackbird - merle - which references the dark colour in the grape itself.

Merlot is easily the most widely planted grape from the Bordeaux region of France and it is undoubtedly just about the most popular red wine varieties throughout the world. Only Cabernet Sauvignon, according to fairly recent surveys, has more hectares of growing land dedicated to its production globally. The earliest recorded mention of merlot is found in the notes of a Bordeaux official dated 1784. He describes wine made from the merlot grape as one of the finest in the region (Libournais).

New plantings of merlot were banned from 1970 - 1975 as a result of serious problems in the late 50’s and 60’s caused severe frosts and weather related disease which led to some very large crops simply rotting on the vine. Merlot has a tendency to bud early which makes it susceptible to weather conditions leading to over ripening.

Merlot grapes are likely to over ripen extremely quickly once past the initial ripening period. This can occur in a matter of days and presenst winemakers with the quandary of when better to harvest. Should they harvest right after the grapes ripen they could achieve a rather more acidic wine that might age better. Others would rather allow a little bit more ripening which reinforces the fruitiness and sweetness of the finished product. Delaying harvesting for too much time however may be disastrous.

Merlot enjoyed a visible upswing in its popularity in the us throughout the 1990s that was aided by a later harvesting trend in this period which produced a large amount of friendly and straightforward drinking wines as a result of softer nature of late harvested merlot grapes. The undeniable fact that the word merlot trips off of the tongue easily probably helped also.

Merlot is certainly by far the most widely grown variety in France. Specifically the south western regions Bordeaux, Bergerac and Cahors such as Bordeaux, Bergerac and Cahors although it's now widely planted in Languedoc-Roussillon where its often blended with Medoc. Chateau Petrus, probably the most famous and rarest wines on earth is produced almost entirely from merlot grapes.

In the 2004 film Sideways, the principle character troubled wine enthusiast and snob Miles, played by Paul Giamatti has a disdain for merlot which he feels is just too simple to grow and too approachable. “I’m not drinking Merlot” is his catch phrase in the movie - he far prefers Pinot Noir because of its relative difficulty to husband.