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By Root 692 0

I sometimes think the real reason it got so hot in the nineties was the name —just two syllables. It is my theory that a less frightening pronunciation makes for an easier sell, which gives Merlot a distinct advantage over Cab-uhr-NAY Sow-veen-YONE. I also find that Merlot’s reputation for soft (low) tannin is more theoretical than real. Wineries have started to veer away from the smooth-style Merlot people fell in love with. Now, many of the boutique bottlings are made in the style of topflight Bordeaux, which are built for aging in the cellar rather than current drinking, and thus have a lot of tannin. Finally, Merlot came to the fore in tandem with the widely publicized health benefits of moderate red wine consumption, which probably helped boost its popularity. I advise caution when buying Merlot at the everyday price points; many of the offerings are pretty industrial and plain. Although the top-end wines do not always deliver on the soft tannin promise, they can be excellent. Unfortunately, there aren’t many available in the middle price range, although many of the high-priced bottlings are starting to come down to prices commensurate with their middle-of-the road quality.

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Cabernet Sauvignon Scorecard

Professional Cabernet Sauvignon has long been famous as the main ingredient in most of the top red French Bordeaux, and it’s certainly the calling card of California’s two best-known wine regions, Napa and Sonoma. Several other regions have just scratched the surface of their potential for making good-to-great Cabernet Sauvignon. Among them are Argentina, Australia, parts of Italy, and South Africa, with Washington State and Chile in particular worth watching.

Personal For my money, Cabernet Sauvignon trumps Merlot nine times out of ten. It usually offers better value for the money, and I am always amazed at how well the distinctive style of the grape comes through even in the everyday bottlings. I also think its reputation for higher tannin than Merlot is a bit miscast. Even in its traditional home of Bordeaux, France, and throughout the rest of the Cabernet-growing world, the so-called modern style of winemaking is used to make Cabernets that have softer tannins. This change in winemaking and wine styles, which recognizes the fact that few wine drinkers have the space and patience to “cellar” wine before consuming it, took place long before the start of the Merlot craze.

Syrah/Shiraz

Syrah/Shiraz grows best in moderate to warm climates. Because Australia’s market dominance with this grape puts so many warm-climate versions on store shelves and wine lists, I generally rank it as fuller-bodied than Merlot/Cabernet, although there are certainly exceptions. In terms of flavor, the moderate and warm climate zones’ signature fruit flavors aptly characterize the Syrah/Shiraz style, ranging from plums and soft berries like raspberry to deeper fruits such as black-skinned berries and figs. I generally find that, depending on the sources, Syrah/Shiraz tends toward the wilder, more exotic dark fruits—boysenberry and blackberry, for example—as compared to the subtler plum and blackcurrant fruit of Merlot and Cabernet. In the warmest climates, the dark fruit flavors of Syrah/Shiraz often taken on a still richer stewed or dried character—imagine stewed prunes, dried figs, date, raisins, or even mincemeat and you get the idea.

For the tasting to explore these differences, we’ll take a slight departure from the climate zone approach, for two reasons. First, the climate zone differences for Syrah/Shiraz are subtle and, I think, not particularly clear to the average label-reader. For example, Washington’s Columbia Valley might be called a moderate climate for Syrah, as compared to Australia’s warm-climate McLaren Vale for Shiraz—but only well-studied wine pros are likely to know this. Second, I’ve found that across climate zones, quality level seems to be the key factor in the fruit intensity of the wine—the higher the quality, the deeper and richer the fruit. Imagine the difference