For this tastings we had six great Merlots from some very different growing areas, however, that all displayed totally different flavor profile, but all were unmistakably Merlot based wines. The growing regions we picked were Yuba County and El Dorado County, both in the Foothills but with very different growing conditions, two from Los Carneros in Napa, one from Saint Emilion in Bordeaux, France, and the last was made primarily from Sonoma County grapes. The beautiful voluptuousness of a great Merlot was present in each of these, as was the lovely fruit characteristics, slight earthiness, spice and chocolate.

In the end the tasters were divided between a preference for great complexity vs incredible depth of flavor. It became apparent that the number one and number two wine depended on the preference for the unbelievable depth of flavor and long finish of the Primus Merlot from the Foothills, or the complexity and finish of the Kendall-Jackson and the Grand Cru wines. Getting to the next level from there got seemed to be different with each individual. These were all delicious wines with great fruit, good complexity of non-fruit flavors, good acidity and a nice structure of tannin.

The following grid is the composite results of the input of all of the tasters. These are all fairly easy wines to find for sale, Click Here!