Merlot: Just a Cabernet Wanna-Be

They have been known as kissing-cousin grape varieties, with similar but distinct flavors, but in California the wines called Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are becoming identical twins.

There are two reasons for this, I suspect. One is that most of California’s grape-growing regions, including Napa and Sonoma counties, have a relatively sunny climate. California is more like the Mediterranean than the Atlantic coast of France, where Cabernet and Merlot originated.

In Bordeaux’s cool climate, Merlot and Cabernet have to struggle to ripen, and in the process, distinct differences develop between the grapes. Though both have a cherry-like note to their fruit, Cabernet tends toward bell pepper and oregano; Merlot is more like green tea and fresh tobacco. But when the grapes ripen fully, as they do in many California areas, the differences are muted.

Another reason Merlot and Cabernet are so alike here is that our winemakers seem to want them to be.

Theoretically, Merlot is the red wine we drink while we wait for our Cabernets to mature. The word soft is often used to describe Merlot, because it yields a wine that is supposed to be more approachable at a young age than the so-called “savage” Cabernet.

Yet many of the Merlots being made in California today don’t show that softness. Winemakers are soaking Merlot grape juice on the grape skins and seeds to extract more color and tannin than Merlot needs or wants. And they are aging Merlot in new French oak barrels in an attempt to gain complexity.

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What all this does is make the wine bigger, and in the process some of the finesse is lost. In the case of Merlot, bigger is usually not better.

But Americans seem to want hulking red wines and are willing to pay silly sums to get them. So many times in blind tastings, based solely on aroma and taste, it’s hard for me to state that one wine is a Merlot and another is a Cabernet.

One clue used to be the texture of the wine: The softer wines were Merlot. That no longer holds true. Some of the most powerful, tannic, concentrated wines I have had in the last year or two have been Merlots.

Adding to the confusion are Meritage wines, which are blends of Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and other grapes. This adds more complexity to the mix but creates another kind of wine that has both Merlot and Cabernet traits.

To see if I could tell one from the other, I blind-tasted 20 randomly selected red wines: 12 Cabernets, five Merlots and three Meritage wines. In half the wines, it was impossible for me to guess the variety with certainty.

In some cases, the winemaking was faulty. In others, so much Cabernet was blended into the Merlot (25% is permissible for the wine to retain its varietal name on the label) that it confused the issue of what the wine really was.

But the single most important element was winemaking style. Where the winemaker intended to make a big wine by blending and by extracting stuffing from the skins, the effect was to mask what the wine was.

There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, so long as you know that you’re buying a Merlot that tastes like a Cabernet.

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What follows are notes on my blind-tasting of Cabernets, Merlots and Meritage blends, in order of preference. The Cabernets generally scored better than the Merlots.

1. 1989 Robert Keenan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon ($15)--Definitive Napa Valley Cabernet aroma with herbs, black currants, mint and a trace of anise. A deep, rich wine with fine balance and ample stuffing for aging.

2. 1990 Sequoia Grove Winery Cabernet Sauvignon “Estate Reserve” ($25)--A Napa Valley (Rutherford-area) wine that’s packed with Cabernet nuances including black cherry, a mild toasty note from oak aging and a generous, rich finish.

3. 1990 Morgan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmel Valley ($14)--Complex Cabernet fruit aromas and flavors including thyme, cherry and anise. A classy, polished wine that gives an impression of Merlot-ishness in its texture but is clearly Cabernet in taste.

4. 1990 Liparita Winery Cabernet Sauvignon ($28)--From Howell Mountain on the Napa Valley’s eastern edge, this wine is fairly toasty from new French oak aging, but it has ample fruit and is soft and generous. A lovely wine, a bit overpriced.

5. 1989 Franciscan Vineyards “Magnificat” ($20)--An elegant wine with Merlot texture and Cabernet taste. (It is 82% Cabernet.) Not yet very deep or complex, it may develop with another year or two in the bottle.

6. 1991 Seghesio Winery Cabernet Sauvignon ($9)--Faint dusty-fruit aroma, nicely structured fruit and oak. Not a very complex wine, but with certain harmonies of flavor, and at a price I really liked.

7. 1990 J. Lohr Winery Cabernet Sauvignon “Seven Oaks” ($11)--From the Paso Robles area, this wine is very oak-y and chocolaty but has ample fruit peeking through. Bordeaux lovers may not like this ultra-Californian approach, but the wine is tasty.

8. 1990 Round Hill Cabernet Sauvignon ($7)--Lovely Cabernet aroma, but unfortunately less fruit in the mouth. Still the wine is rewarding, and considering that some shops will have it at $5.99, it’s a very good buy.

9. 1989 Cain Cellars “Cuvee” ($12)--Claret-like elegance, with nice fruit and balance in a lighter-styled wine.

10. 1991 Rombauer Vineyards Merlot ($20)--Fairly light flavors and a bit gritty and astringent, but otherwise nice-tasting.

11. 1989 Dominus ($45)--Better than most past vintages. There is complexity here, though it comes less from fruit and more from herbal notes, bottle age and oak. There is also a faint barnyard-y note that emerges with air, and the aftertaste is pretty hard and tannic.

12. 1990 Columbia Crest Winery Cabernet Sauvignon ($12)-- Nicely made, though not very Cabernet-like, with black cherry fruit and cola notes.

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The remaining wines in the tasting weren’t worth ranking. As the notes, in random order, show, I felt they were overpriced for what showed up in the bottle.

1990 Liparita Merlot ($24)--Medicinal, dill weed notes.

1991 Alexander Valley Vineyards Merlot ($14)--Earthy, sour.

1990 Chappellet Merlot ($14)--Somewhat Cabernet-like, with vegetal, dill and truffle aromas.

1990 Stonestreet Vineyards and Winery Cabernet Sauvignon ($20)--Grassy aroma, gritty tannic finish.

1990 Guenoc Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon “Beckstoffer Reserve” ($20)--Varnish-like, over-oaked aroma.

1991 Alexander Valley Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon ($14)--Slightly raisiny.

1990 Konocti Winery Cabernet Sauvignon ($10)--Sardine and dill.

1991 Buena Vista Winery Merlot ($12)--Odd geranium aroma.

Wine of the Week

1991 Shooting Star Cabernet Franc ($10) --A cousin to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc traditionally has been used to add texture and some aroma to Cabernet blends, though on its own it has been regarded as a rather lackluster wine. Now Steele Wines, owned by former Kendall-Jackson winemaker Jed Steele, has released a striking new 1991 Cabernet Franc under his second label, Shooting Star. The wine, which sells for only $10, is one of the best Cabernet Francs I have ever tasted--silky, and richly packed with flavor. It’s quite a bargain.

Steele has also released a handsome new 1992 Chardonnay ($15) that is complex and loaded with generous spiced fruit flavors. It has good acidity (because most of the fruit is from cool climates) and a full, rich finish.