I
can't think of anything more fashionable in the world of wine than
Merlot. Or to be more specific: Pomerol from Bordeaux, which is
mainly Merlot; California Merlot; and at a lower price point, Chilean
Merlot.
Look
around a busy smart restaurant and you can be sure there will be lots
of swanky diners plumping for wines made from this grape. They may
not know much about it, but they know what's hip and happening, and
at the moment that means Merlot. Twenty years ago, it would have been
unthinkable.
Merlot
was considered Cabernet's poor cousin, an inferior blending partner
in Bordeaux, and a workhorse grape, turning out less-than-thrilling
bottles in other parts of the globe.So
what has happened since? Why has Merlot undergone the sort of image
transformation that Travolta was looking for when he met Tarantino?
In part, it's due to the fact that many drinkers associate moderate
red wine drinking with good health.
They
are keen to glug on red, believing it is beneficial to their hearts
(and there is evidence to back this up), but they don't want a tough,
hefty wine like our big reds or a light, pale red with no guts.
Instead,
they want plenty of ripe, juicy fruit - a real red, if you like - but
one that tastes soft and easy when young and has few harsh tannins.
And one that is widely available and grown all over the world. Merlot
fits the bill.
One
television programme on the health benefits of red wine, broadcast in
America a few years ago, is widely considered responsible for giving
Merlot's popularity a massive boost.
Then
there's the fact that it tastes pretty darn delicious. Merlot has a
thoroughly appealing personality. It may not 'wow' you like a glass
of blockbuster Aussie Shiraz, but Merlot is beautifully supple, plump
and lovable.
It
has a friendly, plummy flavour, a smooth, rounded texture. It's too
complex and serious to be described as 'simple', like, say, Gamay,
but nevertheless it is an easy wine to enjoy. Winemakers adore it,
too: it grows well in cooler spots than Cabernet and although it can
make dilute, bland wine when poorly treated and overcropped, it
often obliges with generously fruity reds.
FRANCE
I've probably made Merlot sound too jolly and one-dimensional. Anyone
coming to the splendid, majestic wines of St-Emilion and Pomerol in
Bordeaux, where a high proportion of the blend is Merlot, would beg
to disagree.
These
reds show Merlot at its most serious, concentrated and venerable
(these particular examples probably belong in our next chapter,
although they are not overtly tannic). In fact, if anyone ever tells
you that Merlot counts for little in Bordeaux compared to King
Cabernet, a) tell them that it is more widely planted than Cabernet,
and b) get them a glass of one of the finest Pomerols and make them
drink their words.
Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot's great blending partner, does indeed hold sway in
the Medoc region of France, where its austere cassis and tannin
character is fleshed out by the more lush and fruity Merlot
component.
But
on the 'right bank' regions of the Libournais area, and especially
its appellations of St-Emilion and Pomerol, Merlot takes over,
contributing sixty to one hundred percent of the blend.
The
rest is usually Cabernet Franc or Cabernet Sauvignon. These wines
have a softer, smoother, even more velvety texture than the
Cabernet-heavy Medoc wines, and they are unusually rich, inky and
intense in ripe fruit flavour and have a extra sheen of oak from new
barrel- ageing to round them off and add complexity.
They
age well for decades, yet they are more approachable when young than old
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