Yeah we know that, largely thanks to the scathing ridicule of the varietal in the movie Sideways, the great sea of Merlot that was the trend previously has dried up. Nobody talks about Merlot any more and, while we have seen all manner of trends going south (see also Australian wine), we know its easier to follow the crowd for most folks. Some of us can still remember back to a time when bottling a varietal Merlot was pretty avant garde and wineries like Keenan and Duckhorn created a whole new awareness in the marketplace. For all you naysayers out there, we also like to mention that some of the world’s most sought after wines (Chateau Petrus, Chateau Trotanoy for example) are made from the stuff.
Some wineries never gave up the ghost and, frankly, Merlot can be a rather delicious alternative in the right hands. Getting back to history, the Merlot craze was so strong that producers were growing it in places that it shouldn’t have been grown and slapping together very ordinary bottlings that barely qualified varietally so they could capitalize on the trend. The same thing is happening today with pink wine. The point is that a lot of wines were made that sullied the grape’s reputation, but shame on the industry for that.
In any case, one of the wineries that was in early in the game and still doing very good work is Saint Francis. We hadn’t seen the wines in some time but a rep trotted in with a series of new releases from this old guard Sonoma producer, including reserve bottlings, and the most impressive, as well as the most remarkable value was the Saint Francis Merlot Sonoma County 2019.
Yes we are recommending a Merlot because it was an ample, plush, very solid red at a really good price. Deep color, inviting nose of blackberry, black cherry, spice, briar, and a little vanilla, the fruit appears unmanipulated and it’s pretty juicy. The juice comes from two sustainably farmed vineyards in the Sonoma Valley, Behler and Wild Oak, and saw 16 months in French oak, 25% new. The winery notes said it got a 91 point score from someone but didn’t say who. Not really the point though.
Our whole trip is that one shouldn’t be ashamed to drink Merlot when it’s this tasty and only $15.98. This is the kind of solid citizen that helped make the varietal popular in the first place. Just sayin…