Merlot

Merlot ('MERL-oh' in British English, mer-LOH in American
English and standard French) is a red wine grape that is
used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines.
Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints
of berry, plum, and currant. Its softness and "fleshiness",
combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular
grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet
Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin. Along with
Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot,
Merlot is one of the primary grapes in Bordeaux wine where
it is the most widely planted grape. Merlot is also one of
the most popular red wine varietals in many markets. This
flexibility has helped to make it one of the world's most
planted grape varieties. As of 2004[update], Merlot was
estimated to be the third most grown variety at 260,000
hectares (640,000 acres) globally, with an increasing trend.
This put Merlot just behind Cabernet Sauvignon's
262,000 hectares (650,000 acres).
Researchers at University of California, Davis believe that
Merlot is an offspring of Cabernet Franc and is a sibling of
Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon. The earliest recorded
mention of Merlot was in the notes of a local Bordeaux
official who in 1784 labeled wine made from the grape in
the Libournais region as one of the area's best. The name
comes from the French regional patois word "merlot", which
means "young blackbird" ("merle" is the French word for
several kinds of thrushes, including blackbirds); the naming
came either because of the grape's beautiful dark-blue color,
or due to blackbirds' fondness for grapes. By the 19th
century it was being regularly planted in the Medoc on the
"Left Bank" of the Gironde. After a series of setbacks
that includes a severe frost in 1956 and several vintages
in the 1960s lost to rot, French authorities in Bordeaux
banned new plantings of Merlot vines between 1970 and 1975.

It was first recorded in Italy around Venice under the
synonym Bordo in 1855. The grape was introduced to the Swiss,
from Bordeaux, sometime in the 19th century and was recorded
in the Swiss canton of Ticino between 1905 and 1910. In the 1990s,
Merlot saw a upswing of popularity in the United States.
Red wine consumption, in general, increased in the US
following the airing of the 60 Minutes report on the
French Paradox and the potential health benefits of wine
and the chemical resveratrol. The popularity of Merlot
stemmed in part from the relative ease in pronouncing the
wine as well as it softer, fruity profile that it made
more approachable to some wine drinkers.