October 5th, 2006 Merlot for Miles

In the film Sideways, Paul Giametti's less-than-heroic character, Miles, proclaims his wine geek's disdain for Merlot as the two couples are about to sit down to a strained dinner at the famed Los Olivos Café. He threatens to leave if anybody orders a Merlot. (His portrayal may be the best satire of a wine geek ever.)

Miles' devotion to Pinot Noir has done wonders for its sales, while his denigration of Merlot was just about the last nail in the coffin for a grape that had begun to decline in popularity. It was as if someone suddenly empowered wine enthusiasts who secretly didn't like Merlot to declare their independence, and disdain, for the grape. Miles' dismissive attitude is not without its reasonable foundation, as much lousy Merlot followed its faddish popularity in the 1980's and 90's. In a hurry to cash in, some vintners planted it where it shouldn't be found and began to make wine from too-young vines. One Merlot enthusiast I knew years back lost his taste for the grape and expressed it, quite validly, this way: "I don't know," he said one day, his arms thrashing about searching for words," they just taste GREEN to me." Bingo. They WERE green.

Badly made Merlot has taken its toll: Some restaurants over the past few years have reported to me that they had already begun to notice a decline in Merlot sales when Miles made his pronouncement. But now it's as if those sentiments were gospel, and that's not right, either.

In South Africa in April, a hostess in one winery tasting room told me about an American couple who had come to the tasting room to sample some Pinot Noir. She was out of Pinot Noir, she said, and invited them instead to taste the winery's very nice Merlot. Heavens!!! You would have thought they'd been invited to sample chimney drippings. Nothing doing!!!

Now, this is ridiculous.

Merlot often serves as an element in a red Bordeaux, but not the full story. However, the expensive Château Pétrus, from St. Emilion, is mostly Merlot, and you'll pay $1,000 a bottle for the privilege of savoring one. (There's also some Cabernet Franc in the wine.) Merlot certainly can stand chiefly on its own, although most producers will flesh it out with a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon, or perhaps Cabernet Franc or Petit Verdot in the Bordeaux tradition. Get on the other side of the river, the Gironde, into Côtes de Blaye and Côtes de Bourg, and Merlot rules.

Merlot may come to rule in Georgia some day too, as far as red wines are concerned. David Harris, owner and winemaker of BlackStock Vineyards in North Georgia, is convinced it's the red grape of Georgia's future. And it's highly prized on Long Island, as well, although interestingly there turns out more often to show black fruit characters rather than red ones.

So let's re-adjust our thinking on Merlot, shall we? We don't want to drink the green ones of yesteryear, but neither do we want to avoid the grape altogether. That's silly. In this country, Washington State does some outstanding Merlot, as anybody who's ever had an Ecole No. 41 knows or a Leonetti.

My own moment of truth on the subject came in a small Georgia town, Fitzgerald, that seems to have no restaurants open on Saturday nights. Famished and in need of sustenance, I hit the Harvey's grocery store as it was about to close (9 p.m.!) and bought bread, ham and cheese to make a sandwich back at my hotel. In my motel room awaited a Casa Silva Merlot. Merlot does ham-and-cheese sandwiches to a fault, especially if you're hungry as hell and thirsty to boot. The combination was DIVINE!

At the end of Sideways, Miles is sitting in a 'burger joint drinking his precious, carefully stored famous Bordeaux out of a paper cup, hiding his treasure from the restaurant's powers. (His esteemed wine, by the way, has a lot of Merlot in it.) Miles finally learned that wine is just a beverage, after all. He's showing his humanity slip.
So let's all come clean on the subject and enjoy Merlot for how delicious it can be when it's grown and vinified properly.

Try these, savoring them with a wide variety of foods, from that ham-and-cheese sandwich to a fine steak. Serve at cool room temperature, about 65 degrees, and see if you can find a better glass than Miles' paper cup. Maybe one that's tall, tulip-shaped and generous in size, so you can sniff and swirl. Even with my ham-and-cheese sandwich, I had a decent glass, and always travel with one in tow. The wine has got to taste better in a good glass than it will in a paper cup, trust me. But I won't get in the way of Miles' communion with his inner self. The boy needed that moment.

Jane Garvey

Food Pairings: Grilled sweetbreads, Argentine style; meat-filled empanadas; Cuban sandwiches and Mexican tortas; hangar steak with bleu- or Brie cheese drizzle; roast duck with sweet potatoes, braised beef brisket with tomato and aromatic spices; picadillo; creamy rich-tasting (but not too ripe) cheeses. Winery suggests meat or cheese fondue.

Price: $10
Wholesaler: Metro Premium Wines

Food Pairings: Grilled hanger steak with blue or brie cheese drizzle; roast chicken or duck with mashed sweet potatoes; grilled vegetables; Cuban or Mexican sandwich with roast pork; meat-filled empanadas; and, surprise, dark chocolate!

Price: $13
Wholesaler: Metro Premium Wines

Food Pairings: Lots of food pairings: Chili (but not too hot); red beans and rice; lasagna or other tomato-sauced pasta; barbecued chicken; grilled meats; roast chicken, duck or Cornish game hen (brush this with a dark fruit jam glaze); smoked meats; chicken Paprikash; stuffed grilled or baked pork chops; garlic mashed potatoes with anything; firm aged cheeses

Price: $13
Wholesaler: United Distributors

Food Pairings: Creamy pâtés, smoked meats, roast duck with mashed sweet potatoes; grilled lamb or beef steak with garlic mashed potatoes; lasagna, grilled sausages with basil and Provolone cheese, chicken Paprikash (but not too hot); barbecued chicken; veal or turkey meatballs with light tomato sauce and mushrooms, grilled ham steak

Price: $14
Wholesaler: Ultimate Distributors

Sullivan Estate Merlot 2002
Napa Valley, CA

Score: 93 Points

Tasting Notes: Big, bold, but elegant, dry red wine; medium deep ruby red. Aromas of red and dark fruits, aromatic spices; Clean, gentle aromas of sweet red and black raspberries, with flavors that assemble, and knit together, a variety of appropriate notes, including dark fruits to spices. The long finish is rich with fruit and tannins, which are firm but not aggressive. Well structured and bold, this is nonetheless balanced and graceful, rather like a well-muscled ballet dancer. A keeper if well cellared, probably for another half dozen years. Maybe more.

Food Pairings: Black olives; pâtés and terrines; grilled steak with bleu- or brie-cheese sauces; Hawaiian-style barbecued short ribs; smoked meats; roast duck or Cornish hem (either one basted with some melted dark fruit jam), prime rib; roast leg or rack of lamb;; prime rib; grilled veal chops stuffed with Fontina cheese and prosciutto; roast pork loin.

Price: $45
Wholesaler: Atlanta Wholesale Wine/NDC

Dry Creek Vineyard Bullock House Merlot 2002
Dry Creek Valley, CA

Score: 94 Points

Tasting Notes: Full-bodied dry red wine; medium-deep purple red. Heavenly aromas of spice and dark fruits; with flavors that offer everything from blackberry to roasted coffee and spice. Tannins are substantial, lending structure to the ample fruit, but without being aggressive. Fruit is luscious, well extracted, but not jammy. Quite graceful. Still young, with plenty of power and structure to give it a long life if properly cellared. Vines planted 1976. Winery's first single-vineyard Merlot. French and American (fooled me!) oak for 21 months.Serve at cool room temperature, about 65 degrees, in glasses with generous bowls.

Food Pairings: Rich foods: roast pork loin, medium, with dark fruit chutney; roasted Cornish hen seasoned with a freshly ground spice mix, including allspice, cardamom and cumin; other game birds; grilled steak with bleu cheese sauce, grilled or roasted rack of lamb; rare to medium rare prime rib; roast medium rare leg of lamb, roast duck; dark meat turkey; braised meats

Price: $32
Wholesaler: Atlanta Wholesale Wine/NDC