Monday, February 7, 2022

Dan Berger: Merlot Prices

Living in the heart of Sonoma County wine country gives me direct access to winemakers, occasionally in grocery stores or parking lots.

Two weeks ago, I bumped into a friend, a winemaker for a small winery, who bemoaned that prices for merlot grapes were rising a lot higher than he had anticipated, which made his job more difficult.

His winery's cabernet sauvignon always has been made with about 20% merlot. Since merlot prices are always lower than he has paid for cabernet, the winery could continue to keep the cabernet sauvignon priced reasonably.

But the way prices for merlot were rising, he said, he had only two choices: either raise the price of the cabernet or use a lot less merlot and replace it with lower-caliber grapes, which would undoubtedly change the style of wine.

Neither choice was ideal.

The story of California merlot goes all the way back to 30 years ago when there were only 8,000 acres of merlot growing in all of California. 

An episode on the CBS show "60 Minutes" called "The French Paradox" spoke of how regular consumption of red wine obviated the rich diet and smoking regime so popular in France. Heart disease, often associated with both smoking and heavy ingestion of fats, was lower in France than it was in the United States.

The counterintuitive conclusion was attributed to regular red wine consumption by the French.

Almost immediately after that episode aired, many Americans dashed out to purchase red wines, eventually settling on merlot because it wasn't as stringent as was cabernet. And almost immediately after that, growers throughout California began feverishly to plant merlot grapes, notably in some regions in which the variety doesn't grow very well.

By 1996, California was awash in merlot grapes. We had reached 58,000 acres of it, a huge percentage planted in the wrong soils and in the wrong climates, making particularly uninteresting red wines.

It led to the main character in the film "Sideways" to disparage all merlots, which wasn't fair to the grape.

Fast-forward to today. The majority of the poor-quality merlot grapes that were planted in the early 1990s have mostly been removed, with some of that land converted to growing other varieties. Along with that removal of merlot was the sad conversion of some excellent cooler-climate merlot grapes.

Today California has only about 35,000 acres of the variety, much of it planted in the right soils and climates to make a fine wine. But obviously it's insufficient to meet the demands of wineries that need quality merlot.

And growers face a dilemma. Some would like to plant more merlot to meet the demand of wineries that need it, but they also fear that too much additional merlot acreage could collapse prices.

That would be a benefit to wineries, of course, but growers cannot afford to be making long-term plans with the possibility of short-term disaster.

How does this affect the price of merlot wines that are on the shelf? Not much, notably if you are in the market for a great quality merlot at a fair price.

There are dozens of high-caliber red wines that are either marketed as merlot or contain that variety as part of a blend that sell for $12 to $20.

Our Wine of the Week is a steal.

Wine of the Week: 2018 La Storia Merlot, Alexander Valley, Estate Bottled, "Block 500" ($34) -- Even at this price, this superb red wine from Trentadue in Geyserville is a terrific value -- loads of black cherry fruit with traces of black olives and anise in the finish; it gets better with aeration and will be best in 3-6 more years. Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa has this wine for $19.99(!), and shipping costs are reasonable. 

To find out more about Dan Berger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM 


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not much different than high corn prices hitting the back yard distilleries hard. And don't even get me started on soft copper prices!

Anonymous said...

Is the wine of the week available anywhere locally? I'm sure it isn't. Would love to order a case but the "conservatives" in charge of the Legislature along with clowns like David Blount who will lie to you about supporting direct shipment to consumers are hell bent on protecting the DOR's grasp on the liquor and wine supply.

Anonymous said...

“If anyone orders merlot, I'm leaving. I am not drinking any fucking merlot.” -Miles truer words were never spoken

Anonymous said...

9:09 : Starting and growing your own grapes around here is pretty easy. The wine making process is also kinda easy.

Macy Hanson said...

Sideways is such a good movie. The second best scene was the I'm not drinking any merlot scene. The first best scene was when they had to get the actor from Wings' engagement ring back.


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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