It takes some doing, but you can still find a pleasant, dry Merlot
Sweet wines have taken over the marketplace over the last decade
Labour Day marks the point where a lot of people return to red wine.
When the nights require a fleece to enjoy, and the moon acquires an orange tint, it’s time for a glass of red.
Why not use this autumnal shift for some reflection? What wine did you like a decade back? Have you had it recently?
Merlot became a standing joke among wine drinkers 10 years ago because it was paving the way for the sweet wines people are consuming by the tankerload today.
A mere 20 years ago, dry table wine meant less than 2 g/L sugar, below the median discernible taste threshold.
Then consumers discovered wines with around 6 g/L were easier to consume.
Various and sundry wine makers decided if six was good, 12 was better, even in their quite expensive wines.
Yeast breeders took up the challenge to ferment wines over 17/17, which is to say 17 per cent alcohol and 17 g/L residual sugar. And behold! Modern Zinfandel was born. Merlot was abandoned.
People like me who still like dry wine — mostly because I drink it more with food and less
as a cocktail — wouldn’t buy the product. The mass market went in pursuit of sweet reds.
But here we are, 10 years later, and those seeking sweet wines know where to find them.
So what has happened to Merlot? I went to my favourite wine store and I had a hard time finding a handful to try. Poor Merlot. Alas, I knew him.
The interesting thing is, you can pretty much dial in your sweetness level in today’s market. What’s more, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to find a perfectly acceptable bottle.
Take, for example, Bouchard Merlot. This wine is the cheapest they sell because Merlot is still the Cinderella of the wine store. It’s not a wine for the ages, but who expects that at $14.95? It is, however, a perfectly acceptable dinner wine, with a medium sweetness, I’d guess 6-8 g/L residual.
The colour is quite dark; the bouquet slightly alcoholic and herbaceous; the palate is herbaceous and spicy with a lighter finish than you may expect. We drank it with a long-aged rib eye and it was more than up to matching the stronger flavours of the beef.
If you want to please your date and flash the credit card, you can step up to the blend Dada 2 safely. This is an Argentine blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (I think. No labelling.) It is a dark wine, with some bell pepper aromas and a bit of spice, cloves and vanilla. The palate is rather smoky, making me wonder if they added some Carmenere or Malbec.
It tends toward the “smooth” Merlot of yore, although this varies from vintage to vintage, coming in around 10-14 g/L, I expect. For a lot of drinkers, this should be their table wine of choice.
If you grew up drinking dry and can enjoy a more traditional wine, you really need to try Torreon de Paredes Reserva Merlot. This is a wine that regularly pulls scores in the low 90s at competitions. Decanter gave it 92.
The bouquet is fruity and spicy with some residual smoky aromas. The palate is full of clean, dark fruit with enough structure for old farts. The finish is surprisingly soft.
Sweetness? Not so much. Under 3 g/L.
In short, their target market is me.