Merlot

Together with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot is the grape responsible for red Bordeaux. In the Médoc it plays a supporting role - typically no more than a third of the blend - across the river in Bourg and Blaye however, its importance is greater and in Saint-Émilion and Pomerol it usually contributes the lion's share. Indeed, one of the world's most expensive wines, Château Pétrus, is 95% Merlot. Merlot has a softer, rounder, sweeter flavour than Cabernet Sauvignon and it is this sweetness that makes some of its best food companions similar to those of Gewurztraminer. Merlot, if it has been aged in new oak can often taste even sweeter, as the vanillin from the oak accentuates sweetness. (This is a particular characteristic of Californian Merlots as American oak is also 'sweeter'.) Our three right-bank Bordeaux wines from Château Rousselle, Château Monconseil-Gazin and Château de la Grave are all blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (approximately 50/50) and they are all oak-aged. The Cabernet adds backbone and structure to the Merlot and these blends go particularly well with roast beef, turkey with cranberry sauce and Moroccan-style pork with prunes (it's the sweetness thing again). Merlot, either on its own or in a blend that's not too heavily oaked, happily accompanies mild, slightly waxy cheeses such as Jarlsberg, Emmental, Edam and Gouda, and is good with the sweet and sour flavours (as well as the associated spices) of a lot of Asian cooking. Along the same lines, chicken liver pâté has a touch of bitterness that calls for a touch of sweetness, and Merlot makes the perfect match. To continue the theme, if you consider foods with a slight sweetness and smoothness of texture you might imagine that Merlot could go well with things like chicken in a cheese sauce, shepherds pie, ham, pan fried calves' liver, mushrooms in a creamy sauce, onions, parsnips, venison - and you would be right. Not forgetting something that might not have come to mind immediately: salmon cooked with tomatoes or red peppers, and barbecued tuna.

Recommended Merlot vineyards:
Blaye - Château Monconseil-Gazin
Côtes de Bourg - Château de la Grave
Côtes de Bourg - Château Rousselle