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Washington Merlot, straight up

December 22, 2013 by Andy Perdue Leave a Comment

sideways

It’s been nearly a decade since Sideways hit the big screen and changed the public perception of Merlot – and Pinot Noir.

While a single line from that Oscar-nominated movie moved the needle down on Merlot sales a bit, that was primarily in California. Here in Washington, Merlot has only gained strength.

It is still the No. 2 red wine grape – No. 4 grape overall – and Merlot can result in such rich, delicious wine, both by itself and in blends. While Cab is the king of reds, winemakers in Washington do not overlook Merlot by any stretch.

One reason for Merlot’s success in Washington is the climate. In more fertile regions, Merlot is difficult to control because it wants to grow, which causes it to lose focus on the fruit. But in Washington, the soils are poor and growers give the vines barely enough water to survive. As a result, Washington Merlot vines focus all of their energy on the grapes. The result: concentration and richness.

Here are 11 Merlots we’ve tasted in the past several weeks, many of which are in that magical $15-and-under range.

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12

Filed Under: Featured wines, Grapes, News, Washington wine Tagged With: featured, ticker

About Andy Perdue

Andy Perdue is founding partner of Great Northwest Wine LLC and a longtime wine columnist. He is a third-generation journalist who has worked at newspapers since the mid-1980s and has been writing about wine since 1998. He co-founded Wine Press Northwest magazine with Eric Degerman and served as its editor-in-chief for 15 years. He is the author of "The Northwest Wine Guide: A Buyer's Handbook" (Sasquatch, 2003) and has contributed to four other books.

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