Ramsay
Merlot 2020
North Coast
Lab Stats: Alcohol 13.5% T.A. 5.4 g/liter pH 3.7
Winemaker Notes:
Year after year I marvel at
Merlot. It has been thru so many ups
and downs in the wine market. For
years it was flying high, everyone wanted Merlot, then it died for nearly a
decade due to the movie “Sideways”, but
re-emerged every time there was a price increase in Cabernet Sauvignon as a
“cheaper alternative”. Now-a-days
I think that it has finally settled into a great place in the market.
Merlot is a wonderfully attractive wine, drinkable, yet no light-weight,
affordable and, for most people, finally pronounceable.
By my research, California’s first stand-alone varietal Merlot was made
by Louis Martini in 1968. I still
have a bottle of that wine in my cellar just because it is a piece of enological
history, although I am sure it is long long over-the-hill.
1968 was 50 years ago now (I was in 7th grade that year)….so it is high
time, with all that history, for Merlot is stating its merits and finding its
place in the wine-world.