Merlot Wine Basics

Merlot is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints of berry, plum, and currant. Its softness and “fleshiness”, combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin.

Along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, Merlot is one of the primary grapes in Bordeaux wine where it is the most widely planted grape. Merlot grapes are identified by their loose bunches of large berries. The color has less of a blue/black hue than Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and with a thinner skin and fewer tannins.

There are three main styles of Merlot—a soft, fruity, smooth wine with very little tannins, a fruity wine with more tannic structure and, finally, a brawny, highly tannic style made in the profile of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Some of the fruit notes commonly associated with Merlot include cassis, black and red cherries, blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, mulberry, ollalieberry and plum. Vegetable and earthy notes include black and green olives, cola nut, bell pepper, fennel, humus, leather, mushrooms, rhubarb and tobacco. Floral and herbal notes commonly associated with Merlot include green and black tea, eucalyptus, laurel, mint, oregano, pine, rosemary, sage, sarsaparilla and thyme. When Merlot has spent significant time in oak, the wine may show notes of caramel, chocolate, coconut, coffee bean, dill weed, mocha, molasses, smoke, vanilla and walnut.

Merlot was seriously maligned in the 2005 movie Sideways by actor Paul Giamatti in the role of Miles, an unsuccessful writer and supposed wine aficionado. In the movie, Miles states “No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving, I’m not drinking any f******* Merlot.”

His remark sent actual sales of Merlot tumbling for several years, while Pinot Noir sales rocketed. Ironically, later in the same movie Miles is shown drinking '61 Cheval Blanc—a blend of Cabernet Franc and (you guessed it) Merlot.

Is Merlot set for a comeback? See what one winemaker predicts in this video.