One of the more interesting things we have observed over the last several years has been the rise and fall of a number wine trends.  In the 70s, the Blue Nun craze hit the market.  German wine took years to recover from everyone’s impression of what they thought German wine was about… sweet and insipid. 

In the 80s, it was White Zinfandel.  On the plus side, that sweetish pink arguably was an entry point for a whole new generation of wine drinkers and helped save countless acres of heritage Zinafandel vines from being plowed under.  The downside was that rosé was set back a decade.  People thought anything pink was sweet and the people who bought it because it was pink, didn’t like it when it turned out to be dry.   Of course dry rose is ‘hot’ again, but it has been a long, tough road.

Australian Shiraz soared through the 90’s only to crash and burn in the mid-00s. Everyone remembers the 'Yellowtail' craze...

Then came the Merlot wave.  Merlot was the ‘opiate of the masses’ for the post-60-minutes, ‘French Paradox’ world where red wines (in moderation, of course) were touted as having certain health benefits.  Everyone was planting, growing and bottling Merlot as fast as they could to fill seemingly insatiable demand.   The market couldn’t get enough of the stuff and the industry did their best to accommodate that demand.  ‘If the people want Merlot, we shall give it to them’.  Never mind that a lot of it came from young vines not necessarily planted in the best places and hastily blended.  To the wine snob, someone asking for Merlot was the novice wannabee. 

In truth, a lot of Merlot during the period really wasn’t very good, but at least a lot of new people were drinking red wine.  Folks were diving right into it, in fact, presumably in part because of the ‘health benefits’.  Red wine is an ‘acquired taste’ and lots of folks were ‘acquiring’.

There are several scenarios to explain what happened next.  One could make a case for the fact that a lot of those folks that started drinking Merlot simply moved on to something else.  Maybe people’s tastes changed and they found something else. Perhaps they became disenchanted with some of the crummy commercial Merlot that was out there. 

A lot of others will point to the widely seen wine-centric cult movie ‘Sideways’ that simultaneously culturally aggrandized Pinot Noir and destroyed Merlot.  After the movie came out, Pinot sales subsequently soared and, perhaps coincidentally Merlot started to taper off…quickly.

Fast forward to today, Merlot is dead.  No one who perceives themselves as a wine aficionado will openly order, purchase, or seemingly condescend to drink something actually labeled ‘Merlot’.  How did it get to be this way?  Like we said, there are a number of theories.  But it is an undisputable fact, to the point where we as merchants have a bit of trepidation even buying a really, really good Merlot for the shelf.  We have had impressive offerings from the likes of Keenan and Coho. 

We sent out an offer on St. Supery not long ago.  The Dollarhide Cabernet, sporting a 95-point score and a $70 price point, sold out in an hour.  The 94-point Merlot, at a cool $27-per-bottle lower price, hardly sold at all.  Is it that single point lower score?  The substantial discount certainly makes a strong ‘delta’ but, hello, anybody out there?  The funny thing is, most of these same people would be thrilled to drink a fine, MERLOT BASED, Pomerol from Bordeaux. 

What’s in a name?  Apparently, in the case of Merlot, everything! Seriously, isn’t that a little Merlot-dramatic?  Is it better now to drink crummy Pinot Noir than ANY Merlot because Pinot is hip and Merlot definitely isn’t?  Maybe Merlot needs to change its name.  Merlot called ‘Pomerol’ seems to have no trouble getting people’s attention and positive responses.    People chase and throw large sums of money at Merlot-based wines called Petrus, Le Pin, and Masseto?  Considering that some of the world’s greatest wines are Merlot-based, does it make sense to completely ‘dis’ named versions of the varietal across the board?  Wines like Duckhorn, Paloma, and Pahlmeyer (as well as that St. Supery we mentioned earlier) shouldn’t be ignored because of this current varietal stigma.

There seems to be a plethora of Merlot ‘haters’ out there who can’t even explain why they feel that way, though they express a firm commitment to their ‘hater’ stance.  History would suggest that this too will pass…some day.  In the meantime, “all we are saying is give Merlot a chance”.  We can tell a similar story about people who wouldn’t buy a bottle of Grenache to save their lives but love Chateauneuf, but we’ll save that for another day…