The stars and lights shine so bright with this interesting Texas Merlot. Though I'm not a huge fan I like Merlot, but I think the bashing as of late is rather unfair. Some of the criticism is due to its sweetness, and some California winemakers appeared to have engineered their Merlots to make the wines more sweet than they need to be. And, of course, there's the Sideways movie. When offering a red wine to a guest, sometimes it's "any red, as long as it's not Merlot".
Traditionally Merlot has been a mixing grape in Bordeaux and other southern French regions, though there are a few Bordeaux wines that are 100 percent Merlot, such as the extremely pricey Château Pétrus. For me Merlot has always been a welcome grape that is more medium-bodied than Cabernet Sauvignon. It is very versatile with a variety of types of foods, and as a medium-bodied wine it has very soft tannins.
Despite the bad press and naysaying, ironically Merlot production is actually up. According to Patrick Fagan of the Chicago Wine School, Merlot planting was up three percent globally from 2006 to 2007. Merlot plantings in Texas, according to Doug Frost in the Wine Report 2009 book, are up 47 percent from 2000.
Frost ranks the Spicewood winery in the top ten up-and-coming producers. Located in Texas Hill Country over an hour outside Austin, Spicewood has a hint of French oak, along with rasberries. At $15 a bottle it is decently priced (the '06 on the vineyard's website goes for $18 and mentions Hungarian Oak). The label needs some refining, as it looks like a bottle of Door County cherry wine bought at a souvenier shop off the interstate.
Texas wine hasn't really crept into Illinois, and even today its wine industry has primarily supplied the local market, but if you're ever in Texas Hill Country you may want to consider checking out Spicewood or any of the local wineries.
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