Red Wines: Merlot

"Merlot has such a sad tale for such an amazing varietal. It's one of the principle grapes of Bordeaux, and the star of the show for the wines made on the right bank. It had an incredible heyday as one of the most important grapes in California in the 90's, however all it took was one movie with 126 minutes of runtime to crush the varietal--no pun intended. The 'sideways effect' has been well documented at this point, but its just such a sad thing for such an incredible varietal."