Come Over, It’s Merlot Season: At the Heart of Comfort

October is the first truly cozy month, when earlier nights and heartier meals beg for conversation, connection, and wine.  To tap into the season, luminaries of our national wine community - Karen MacNeil, Gino Colangelo, and Kimberly Noelle Charles -  created Come Over October in 2024. The campaign’s mission is simple - to remind us that wine is best shared and that gathering is a tradition worth keeping. By happy coincidence, October is also International Merlot Month. That overlap feels just right, because Merlot pairs so naturally with the roasts, braises, and pot pies that define the season and grace our tables.

Though first recorded in 1784, Merlot’s roots in Bordeaux run deeper, especially in the Libourne region, where it was praised for producing wines of “superior quality.” Its name comes from merle, the French word for blackbird - likely a nod either to its dark berries or the birds who loved them. Merlot ripens earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, a crucial advantage in Bordeaux’s unpredictable autumn weather. The magic of the Bordeaux blend lies in that flexibility: each grape ripens at a different time, allowing winemakers to adapt the blend to each vintage. That consistency, combined with the depth and richness it found in Saint-Émilion’s limestone and Pomerol’s clay, helped establish Merlot as a cornerstone of Right Bank wine.

But just as Merlot was gaining ground, the nineteenth century brought its greatest threat. Like every European grape, it was devastated by phylloxera, the tiny aphid that swept through vineyards and left ruin in its wake. Recovery only came when French growers grafted their vines onto resistant American rootstock. In the decades that followed, Merlot was replanted widely, and its reputation as a stabilizing partner in Bordeaux blends remained strong. By the mid-twentieth century, it had become Bordeaux’s most planted grape.

Merlot’s international journey accelerated in the postwar years. In Italy, particularly in Friuli and Tuscany, it gained ground both as a blending partner and a varietal wine, often producing a more savory, structured style. California embraced Merlot in the 1970s, at first to soften Cabernet Sauvignon, but soon as a varietal in its own right. By the 1980s and ’90s, it had become one of America’s most popular red wines, appreciated for its plush fruit and easy drinkability. Washington followed a similar arc. Early plantings on Red Mountain and in Walla Walla during the 1970s and ’80s proved ideally suited to the grape, and by the 1990s, the state had built much of its reputation on Merlot. Producers like Leonetti and L’Ecole No. 41 were crafting benchmark bottlings.

Then came 2004 and the film Sideways. Miles’ infamous rejection of Merlot hit the grape’s popularity hard. Sales slipped, Pinot Noir surged, and the “Sideways effect” became shorthand for how quickly cultural perception can shift. I was working as a sommelier on the floor at the time, and I vividly remember guests referencing the movie, asking my thoughts on it, and then -ordering Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon. The impact was real. Demand softened.

During my time at Gallo, I heard the story of how Dave Phinney - of The Prisoner and Orin Swift fame - continued buying Merlot from his grower partners after the film’s release, adding the grapes to his blends, to help support them financially. Economists now point out that Merlot’s decline had already begun before the movie, but the film amplified the downturn in a way no one in the vineyard could have anticipated. The irony of the film? Miles ends the film sipping Cheval Blanc from a to-go cup - one of Bordeaux’s greatest wines, built largely on Merlot.

Yet Merlot’s deeper truth has never been tied to fashion. Old vines in Pomerol, at estates like Pétrus and Lafleur, still yield wines of immense concentration. Tuscany’s Masseto continues to prove that Merlot can be as profound as any Sangiovese or Cabernet. In Washington, heritage vines planted more than forty years ago now produce fruit that balances richness with remarkable freshness.

The science explains part of the appeal. With thinner skins than Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot yields gentler tannins, while its high anthocyanin content gives it that luminous ruby hue. Alcohol tends to be moderate, acidity fresh but not austere. It’s a chemistry lesson written for autumn foods. Washington Merlot with roast lamb, Saint-Émilion with boeuf bourguignon, and Tuscan Merlot with mushroom pot pie are most welcome pairings that are meant to be shared with friends and family.

Merlot has been praised, dismissed, and rediscovered. But through it all, it has held its place at the table. So come over this October, pour a glass, and let both the campaign that invites us to gather, and the grape that thrives in October kitchens, remind us of what wine has always done best: bring people together across history, across continents, and across the table - even if it’s enjoyed from a to-go cup.