21 Oct Please The Palate Wine of the Week: 2016 Les Cadrans de Lassègue, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Bordeaux, France
October is “Merlot Month” and November 7th is #InternationalMerlotDay” so in celebration, today’s wine of the week is the 2016 Les Cadrans de Lassègue, from Saint-Émilion, France. Poor Merlot is a grape that was maligned. In the 1990s, it was such a popular grape that it was planted everywhere in California, even places where it wasn’t well suited. The wine produced was overripe, over-oaked and high alcohol. It was mass produced. And then in 2004, the movie Sideways came out and put a nail in Merlot’s coffin. Sales plummeted and instead, people began to turn to Pinot Noir. Here’s the irony. Throughout the entire movie Sideways, Miles made derogatory remarks about Merlot. But at the very end of the movie, he enjoyed his prized Cheval Blanc with a hamburger. Well, Cheval Blanc is a Premier Gran Cru Classé wine from Saint-Émilion, which means that it was a Merlot-based wine. Saint-Émilion is located on the Right Bank in Bordeaux. Merlot is the dominant grape in the Right Bank and beautiful Merlot-based Bordeaux wines have been produced for decades.Discover more from Please The Palate
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