Types of Wine Grapes: Merlot

Ep 57

I’m back with another wine grape deep dive and this time it’s Merlot! 

If I’m being honest, I tend to skip right over Merlot when I see it on the menu. However, after a lot of research, I think I’ve changed my own mind about this grape!

Join me as we dive into the rise and fall of the Merlot grape! 

We’ll get into how Merlot went from being a superstar to shunned, how it is often mistaken for Cabernet Sauvignon, its mysterious parentage, the unique characteristics of Merlot grapes, and its global prominence.

We’ll discover the impact terroir has on Merlot from the clay limestone soils of Bordeaux to the mountainous regions where rocky, well-draining soil produces high-quality grapes with concentrated flavors.

If you are ready to have your mind blown about this grape and have Merlot back in the spotlight, press play and let’s go!

Other Grape Deep Dives

• Ep 06: Grape Deep Dive - Chardonnay

• Ep 14: Grape Deep Dive - Cabernet Franc

• Ep 21: Grape Deep Dive - Chenin Blanc

• Ep 38: Grape Deep Dive - Riesling

• Ep 45: Grape Deep Dive - Barbera

Episode Highlights:

• History and origins of Merlot

• Viticulture and terroir of Merlot

• Flavor and Aroma profile of Merlot

• Style of Merlot

• What areas produce Merlot

• How to serve Merlot

• What food to pair with Merlot

Transcript

0:04

Okay. Recording episode 57 of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. I'm gonna try to see if I can push that back. Okay. We'll see. Hopefully, this is good, Liz. Video wise, I just don't wanna bring the other table in here and get it all figured out. So we'll see we'll see if this works. K. Let's take a quick picture. Currently recording. Alright. Welcome back to another episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. Today, we are doing a new installment in my grape deep dive miniseries. Today, we are talking about a red wine that unfortunately just doesn't get the attention that it deserves, and we're gonna talk about why that is. But we're gonna talk about Merlot. And I'm curious, now that I've said that, what is the first thing that comes to mind when I say Merlot? What do you think of when you see Merlot on the menu? I'll be honest. I tend to glaze over it. Like, I don't actively dislike Merlot, but if I ever see it, like, on a tasting list or on a restaurant list, I'm never drawn to try it. And I honestly think that has more to do with, like, general public views on Merlot and some different media aspects as well rather than how the wine actually tastes. And the more that I did this research, and I I'm hoping by the end of this episode that I might be able to change your mind because I think I changed my mind while I was doing the research. And and, you know, the thing is doesn't have the best reputation. And, I mean, we could probably all just blame famous actor Paul Giamatti. We all know it's his fault that we don't like Merlot. If you don't know what I'm talking about, we'll get to it later in this episode. But like I said, hopefully, by the end, I will have convinced you that Merlot is a really incredible grape that makes incredible wine, and it is so worth trying the next time you see it on a list or see it at a wine shop. Okay. You know me. We gotta start with a little bit of history, and I feel like even just knowing the history will make you wanna try Merlot a little bit more. So Merlot was believed to originated in Bordeaux, which is in Southwest France in 17 eighties. And I say Southwest France, hold that in your brain because we're gonna talk about some other areas in France and why I'm not totally convinced that Merlot originated in Bordeaux. So, again, thanks. Southwest France, that's, like, you know, the bottom left corner if you're looking at the map. So this is where the first mention of it shows up. It said, Merlot, it makes a black and excellent wine and is productive in good soil. This was in the 17 eighties. However, it was spelled merlau. Obviously, today, it is spelled different. Today's spelling wouldn't be seen until at least, what is that, like, 40 years later in 18/24. The name itself, Merlot the name itself, Merlot, comes from try that one more time. The name Merlot actually means little blackbird in the regional dialect of Bordeaux. This bore goodness. This bird reportedly loved eating the Merlot grapes. Now back to where it originated. So it was believed that Bordeaux is the birthplace, but like I said, I'm I'm not convinced. So let's talk about why. And to do that, we need to talk about Merlot's parents. New varieties are always created when one grapevine pollinates a different variety's grape vine. Right? So each grape that you are familiar with, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, they all have two parents that were each grapevines before it. Right? And potentially still. Those two grapes become the parents of the new grape that is created. So Merlot. Who are Merlot's parents? It has been known since the 19 nineties, thanks to DNA profiling, that one of Merlot's parents is Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Franc is also one of the parents of a Cabernet Sauvignon. If If you wanna learn more about Cabernet Franc, I actually did a deep dive into that grape in a previous episode. I'll put the number in the show notes because I have no idea what number it was. Now, again, Cabernet Franc is most known in the Loire Valley and in Bordeaux, but it actually originated in the Bosque Country of Spain or so the legend goes. So this is one of the parents. Cabernet Franc originated in the Bosque country of Spain. Now if you sail directly north from the city of Bilbao in Bosque country, you'd hit the region of Brittany, France. This is in North France. Alright? We're in Northwest France. Right? This is nowhere near Bordeaux. In Brittany, this is where ampillographers, fancy name for grape botanist, eventually found Merlot's other parent. You know, we could call it its mom, so to say, if we're gonna say Cabernet Franc because the dad there is no gender in all this, but I think it just makes it easier if we say mom and dad. Right? Okay. So mom is Cabernet Franc or dad is a Cabernet frog, and these finally found the mom after 10 years of searching. This grape was first sampled in 1996 in Northern Brittany, France, the cuttings of which were taken from an abandoned vine on the slope of a hill called Montgora. Now 4 years later, 4 more plants of this grape were found, and they were found just, like, casually in the front yards of some homes in 4 different villages. Like, nothing like just casually having Merlot's long lost parent in your front yard. Like, I mean, I don't know about you, but around Seattle, there are a few places that have, you know, just wild grapevines in the back. None of them are as special as the pair of Merlot, but here, if you happen to be in the area of Brittany, France, you might have a famous grape in your backyard or your front yard. Who knows? This grape so these grapes that were in front of those homes, they were locally known as raisin de la Madeleine because the grapes were ripe by the holiday of Saint Madeleine on July 22nd. My anniversary with my anniversary with mister Cork and Fizz, actually. But that is, like, real early to have grapes right by then, so it makes sense why they kinda, like, called it by that. They're like, hey. These ripen real early. Now there are a lot of different madeleine grapes, apparently, so they ended up changing the name a little bit to Madeline. So all this said, if Merlot's mom came from Northern France, because that's where we found it, and its dad came from the Basque Country in Spain. It seems pretty wild that the first Merlot plant was created in Bordeaux, unless, of course, it just so happened that somebody brought vine cuttings from each of those to Bordeaux. But the thing is, you would see this Madeleine grape in Bordeaux, but you do. So I don't know about you, but I'm just, like, not convinced that Bordeaux is the birthplace of Merlot. But who am I to decide? Okay. Let's talk a little bit about the viticulture of Bordeaux before we get goodness. Let's talk a little bit about the viticulture of Merlot before we get into the the wine itself. So let's talk about the grape and the grapevine first. Starting off, this grape is early budding. Remember, a grapevine has 4 essential, what I wanna say, like, cycles that it goes through, or at least it it changes within the seasons. Right? So during the winter, it's dormant, and then early spring is when it's going to start budding, and that is before it flowers. And then when it flowers after that, you end up getting the grapes from the flowers. And then you harvest the grapes, and then it goes back into dormancy over the winter. So it is early budding. That means you are going to start to see the little buds coming out sooner than you would for other grapes. This makes it susceptible to bad weather in the spring, especially things like hailstorms or high winds. It is mid ripening, so it doesn't ripen as early as it as its mom does, but it does ripen sooner than a lot of other grapes in the fall. So whenever you're going to go harvest, that likely means you're going to harvest Merlot before you would harvest some other grapes. It is moderate to extremely vigorous, aka if you just let it do its thing, it would make a lot of grapes. It will be high yielding if not controlled. And, typically, if you're not wanting to make a good wine, you do not want it to come from high yielding grapes. You want them to have a smaller number of grapes so that the flavors are more concentrated. Merlot grape vines are well suited to clay limestone soils, and I'm telling you this because when we talk about some of the regions where it comes from, you're gonna hear me say clay and limestone. You'll be like, ah, that makes sense why it does well there because it likes clay limestone soils. It also likes rocky, well draining soils in mountainous regions. All of these things are going to control the yields of the grapevine so that it becomes more concentrated. That's a good thing. It is also a very delicious grape that is let's scratch that. Okay. It is also successful as a grape. It is one of the top grapes. Thanks to what it has inherited from its parents. So from Cabernet Franc, it got a high quality phenolic compound. What that means is it gets the tannins, like really well structured tannins, not necessarily a lot of them, but they have the right structure to just give the wine something to, like, stand up on and give it a good back bone. It also has these anthocyanins, which give it really beautiful color. And, hey, those anthocyanins are what, make wine healthy apparently. Though, you know my stance on that. Wine is not healthy. It's alcohol. Come on, people. Another thing that I got so that was from Cabernet Franc. And then from the Magdalene grape, it got early ripening and fertility. So, again, that earliness so you don't have to wait until later in the fall where there's more weather that can ruin it. You can pick it a little bit early, and then that fertility has to do with the high yields, which might not necessarily be a good thing, but we'll we'll talk about that. Now moving on to the wine that is made from Merlot. Just in general, it is often referred to as a chameleon. This is because it can come in many different styles. It can be fruity, smooth, and easy going. Or, on the flip side, it can be age worthy, full bodied, and sophisticated. It is actually often mistaken for Cabernet Sauvignon, which to me makes me think that that must mean it is a top quality wine and a grape that makes really incredible wines. Because if you can mistake it for Cabernet Sauvignon, which is one of the most popular wines in the world, if not the most popular, then, hey, it's gotta be some pretty good stuff. Maybe we're not giving it the attention it deserves. In terms of flavors that you might get, think kind of both, mainly in the aromatics, but also maybe a little in the taste. Fruit wise, you're gonna get some blackberry, some cases, which I never know what this is. I always have to look it up. It's a French term for blackcurrants, which I'm also like, what do blackcurrants taste like? They are strong, tart. The it's almost like a grape cherry combo. So, blackberry So blackberry, hassles oh, shoot. I I never know how to say that. Hold on. Flavor wise, from your Merlot, you can expect things like blackberry, cassis, which if you don't know what that is, neither did I. I had to look this up. It is the French term for blackcurrants. And, again, if you're like, that still doesn't tell me anything. I don't know what blackcurrants taste like. You and I are alike. I had to look this up as well. Blackcurrants are strong, tart. They're almost like a grape cherry combo. So think about that flavor or that aroma as well. Right? When we say flavor, we also have to think about the aroma coming from the from coming from the wine, baked cherry, lump, licorice, mocha, dark chocolate, vanilla, and bay leaf. Structure wise, right, when we're kind of feeling the structure and the texture of it, it is usually quite smooth and round. It can be plump. It is less tannic than Cabernet Sauvignon, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have some good tannins in it. It is refreshing, but it doesn't have high acidity, so it's not tart. Medium to full body depending on the style, and medium to medium plus alcohol. Now, Merlot is most often used as a blending grape, and that is because of that smoothness. It can help soften other wines and counterbalance high tannins. Now, you might be asking, why is it so smooth? What is it about this grape that ends up making smooth wines? And there are a few things. So, first, the grape itself has thinner skins and fewer seeds. So if it has thinner skins, that means less tannins are going to come out during that maceration stage, and that is the stage where the, wine before it stage, and that is the stage where the, wine before it is fermented is left in contact with the grape skins and the seeds. And then with fewer seeds, the thing is, seeds actually contain harsher tannin than the skins do. If you've ever had a chance to eat a grape off of a grapevine, like a wine grape, a lot of times they'll recommend that you not actually bite into the seed because it is so overly tannic. I remember when we had one I think the first time we did this, we were out in Oregon, and this was, like, right at the very beginning. This is the thing that, like, caused me to get into wine, and we went out to the vineyard and said, here. Try this. But the way I want you to eat this, and I want you to push the grape up against the top of your mouth so it, like, bursts and you get the you get the juice. Then I want you to kind of feel the, you know, the skins and the seeds, but I don't want you to bite into them and probably just spit them out. And I thought that was so fascinating that it's like, don't actually eat that stuff. That's gonna be overwhelming. You just want the juice. And so for Merlot, because it has fewer seeds and the thinner skins, you're gonna get less of that bitters, flavor and structure. And then the tannins themselves, they've actually gone in and looked at this, and the molecules of the tannins are a different shape than a lot of reds. They're smaller. And so something about that means that you end up with a smoother texture. All this to say, this wine can still have layers. Don't hear smooth and think like bland or boring. It just means that it's it's think, like, velvety. Like, I wanna say it in, like, a good way. Right? Okay. Let's dive into where you're going to find some good Merlot. So Merlot, believe it or not, is the 2nd most planted grape in the world. I'm pretty sure Cabernet Sauvignon is the top most planted grape, but, yeah, Merlot is right behind it. It is grown in almost all wine growing regions in the world. Now we're not gonna talk about all those because that would be a very long podcast. We're going to focus on 4 regions. We're gonna talk about France, Italy, the US, and Chile. But Merlot is also grown in Spain, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, and Hungary, among many others. So let's talk about France first. Merlot is the most the most planted grape in France. It is not Cabernet Sauvignon. It is not Chardonnay. It is not Pinot Noir. It is Merlot. Now there is one main region that you are gonna find some really incredible Merlot, and that is in Bordeaux. Now I think, if you're anything like me and you have a general understanding of Bordeaux, the first grape that comes to mind is Cabernet Sauvignon. But turns out there's actually more Merlot, and there's some really great Merlot. So when we think about the region of Bordeaux, again, we're in southwest France, typically, when people talk about Bordeaux, they split it into 2 regions. There is the left bank, and there is the right bank, and these are split, by the river I wanna say the Grave River, but I might be off by that. But there's a river, basically, between these two regions. And the two regions have different soils and different climates, and so they tend to grow dip the grapes differently. Right? So on the left bank, you will primarily have you will primarily have Cabernet Sauvignon dominant blends, and so and so Merlot is just gonna be used to blend the Cabernet Sauvignon and kinda soften it. Right? Now on the right bank, this is where Merlot becomes the star. Now it's still still gonna be blended. Bordeaux is very famous for doing blends, and I love that about it. But Merlot is going to be more of a star, and you're not gonna find a lot of Cabernet Sauvignon. You're actually gonna find it blended more frequently with Cabernet Franc or even potentially Petite Verdot or Malbec. But, again, Merlot's the star. There are 2 specific regions that you should be on the look for that you should be on the lookout for if you want to try a good Merlot from Bordeaux. This first one is pomerol. It is p o m e r o l. Here, you're gonna find clay. Rich swells, remember, limestone clay. This one's clay. You're gonna find, actually, some single varietal Merlot. So if you want to try it, not blended with anything else, pomerol is the place to look for it. That velvety texture, and then these are going to be age worthy. These are the ones that you can put down. I mean, I think I had I've I've tried a pomerol from 1990, and I think I tried it a couple years ago. So that was probably about 20 years old, and it was wonderful. Like, whoo. That's good stuff. Good stuff. I I do recommend it if you can ever get your hands on one. So that's one, Ragen, Palmarole. The other one is Saint Emilio. So it looks like saint, s a I n t, dash, emilion, emili0n. Here, you have limestone and clay soils. You're gonna create a Merlot that is more structured and complex. So not quite as much of the velvety. It's gonna be a little bit more mineral rich and maybe a little bit more acidic and a little bit more tannic, but it's gonna be elegant. So, again, those are your 2 regions in Bordeaux to look out for. In terms of outside of Bordeaux, Merlot is grown in other regions of France, especially in southern France, like, if you look more to the southeast, especially in the Languedoc Roussillon. However, these tend to be a little less exciting. They have warmer temperatures, higher yields, and not quite that same limestone or clay soil that we want the Merlot to be growing. And that's not to say that there isn't great merlot in the longue d'oc. It's just gonna be a little harder to find. Okay. Alright. So moving out of France, let's talk about Italy. There are 2 key regions that you're going to find at Merlot. So the first one is actually in Tuscany. Now, of course, if you think of Tuscany, you primarily think of sangiovese or Chianti. But the thing is is that Merlot often partners to Cabernet Sauvignon and or Sangiovese in what we call Super Tuscans. These are wines that, basically, in Italy, for longest time, they only wanted to grow indigenous grape varieties. They only wanted to grow Italian varieties, and that's why sangiovese is so popular. But Cabernet Sauvignon really started to get people's attention, and you could make great wine from it, and it was a really easy grape to grow. And so the winemakers in Tuscany started to grow it and started to blend it with their sangiovese. But the people who were in charge didn't like that. And so they didn't let them call it a Chianti or didn't let them call it whatever the region was that they were growing it in. And the winemakers were like, fine. You know what? We'll make our own thing, and that is where Super Tuscans came from. So that is where you blend oftentimes Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon with the Sangioveseir. The other region where you're gonna find more single varietal Merlot and where Merlot is more of the star is gonna be in Northern Italy in Friuli. So these can be again, it's kind of that chameleon. They can be simple and fruity or full bodied, tannic, and age worthy. This area actually imported top quality vine cuttings from Bordeaux, and that's where a lot of the grapevines stem from nowadays. Alright. Moving across the pond over to the US, I'm gonna talk about 2 states where you're gonna find a lot of Merlot. The first is California. Now in the 19 nineties, there was a craze for Merlot. It was mellow, so much rounder and more plush than a Cabernet Sauvignon. It's fruit forward. Everybody loved it, right, during the heyday. Now this is where we're gonna start talking about why Merlot has a bit of a bad reputation, especially in the US. First, we have to talk about what is called the sideways effect. So this was in I think it was in, like, 2004, 2005. It was in the early 2000. There's a movie called Sideways that came out. If you have not watched it and you are a wine lover, I highly recommend it. It is a wonderful, wonderful movie. However, there is one line in particular that totally changed the trajectory for both Merlot and Pinot Noir. So Paul Giamatti's character, Miles, has a famous line. They're they're going into, California wine country, and, you know, I think he's with his his friend who's on his bachelor party, and, you know, he but but, you know, Miles, Paul Giamatti's character, is a wine snob. Right? So he says, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am not drinking any effin', but he does not say effin', Merlot. And the thing is Miles loves Pinot Noir. And you know what happened after this movie? This movie was so popular and, like, people I think the problem is that wine is something that's so intimidating that, like, if anybody tells us anything about it, we're like, yeah. Let's stick with that. And so people saw that, and they're like, okay. Merlot sucks and Pinot Noir is wonderful. You we actually saw a drop in Merlot sales following that movie for the next at least 3 years. And, honestly, it's really only been lifting in the last 5 or so years, and the Pinot Noir sales soared. So that's one reason Merlot has a bit of a bad reputation. Merlot is also very high yielding. Remember we talked about that? It can make a lot of grapes if you let it. Problem is, they're not very concentrated and they don't taste great. But California well, California took advantage of that. Right? We had some big companies that wanted to make some money. They knew they could make Merlot for cheap and sell a lot of it. So they started growing it at high yields, making pretty boring, mass produced Merlot, and gave it a bad reputation. So all this to say, don't let that, like, sway you. Really look for some good quality Merlot, and you're going to be amazed. So even just in Napa Valley itself. Yes. There are some good Cabernet Sauvignons, but there are also some incredible Merlots. You're gonna get this full bodied, smooth, velvety, bold, rich, and something a little unique for Napa Valley, a minty flavor from your Merlot. Now the other state, that you can find some good Merlot is Washington. Now I swear I don't just throw Washington in as often as I as as possible, but it's actually it's true. Merlot is the 2nd most planted grape here in Washington. It can maintain its acidity from the diurnal temp, which basically means that the temperature drops quite a bit between the day and the nighttime, so it locks the acidity in overnight. And here's the thing. I have to tell you a little story. When I was in Walla Walla this past April, I was asking every winemaker or every tour guide, whoever was with us, whoever the wine expert was, and I told them, listen. I know Walla Walla grows a lot of different grapes, and that's great. And I wanna keep up with the diversity. But if you had to guess, let's say, 20 years from now, which grape or which wine do you think Walla Walla should become known for? And you will not believe, but a strong, surprising majority said Merlot. Some of these people weren't even making that much Merlot and they're like, yeah, Merlot is like Merlot is amazing here. We just don't make it as much because it's not as popular. But they said it just it there's something about the climate in Walla Walla and the terroir that it creates incredible Merlot. So, hey, maybe 20 years from now, instead of saying Bordeaux is the top place for Merlot, we might have people saying, oh, yeah. Go to Walla Walla, Washington. That is the place for Merlot. Before we leave Washington, one other thing that I actually noticed because I'm I'm realizing that I've had a decent amount of Merlot from Washington, but here's the thing. A lot of Washington wineries don't label the wine as Merlot, and I think this is to combat that bad reputation instead. Now it's not like they, like, bottle it and call it Cabernet Sauvignon. They're not crazy. What they do instead is they give it, like, the fake fancy name. Delil Cellars does this. This was one of my one of my favorite wineries here in Washington. It was actually the wine that we had at our wedding. But one of their wines is, like, a 100% Merlot, but they don't call it that. It's called oh, I I couldn't even tell you what it is. But, like, imagine, like, it's called, like, like, velvet or, like, they have one called 4 Flags. I think that's Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, so it's not a good example. But or, like, Dossier or, they just come up with a fun, fancy name even though it's a 100% Merlot. And they actually don't have Merlot anywhere on the bottle. Maybe sometimes small on the back, but they don't make it, like, super big and obvious. And instead, they just go, this is the the wine. Doesn't that sound great? Let me tell you the flavors of it. And then after you try it, maybe they go, oh, yeah. That's Merlot. Anyways, I don't know. Maybe that's what's working for Washington, but, also, you know, maybe we can work to change your reputation. Okay. Last, region here quick. I realize I'm I'm I'm going on a little bit. Let's talk about Chile. Merlot is the 3rd most planted grape here in Chile. It is really luscious. And if you remember from my episode on carmeniere, that was a previous episode of this deep dive series, The Carmenere grape was actually mistaken for Merlot for the longest time. But don't worry. They have figured it out, and there is real Merlot in Chile as well. Some of the best ones are gonna come from areas in the Central Valley such as Colchagua, Male, Currico, and Cachapual. Alright. Let's finish off talking a little bit about logistics, kind of how to serve it, with temperatures, decanting, things like that. I feel like that's always nice to know, and it's like, okay, Haley. I bought a Merlot. What do I do with it now? Free Merlot. You're gonna serve it slightly below room temperature. What this does is it emphasizes the aromas and not the alcohol. If you let it be too hot, if you serve it at room temperature, the alcohol is more apparent, and that's no fun. So to get it slightly below room temperature, just throw it in the fridge, like, 20 minutes before you're gonna open it. Now the problem is if you wanna decant it. Because if it is a robust and intense Merlot, you could decant it for up to 30 minutes. How do you know? Well, my suggestion is to taste it. Open the wine, pour yourself a small little glass, and if you taste it and it seems like there's not a lot of fruit coming through, and it's just like it almost like and, like, it makes your, like, whole mouth kinda sticky and dry, that to me means it needs to decant. So you can throw it in a decanter. You could throw it in a vase. You can throw it in a pitcher. You can throw it in, You could also just pour your glass of wine early and let the glass of wine sit there for a little bit. Just just let it open up. Let it be in contact with oxygen a little bit. In terms of aging, it is usually age worthy, but, again, kinda talk to whoever you buy it from. Talk to the winemaker. Talk to the, wine shop person depending on, right, or depending on what style the Merlot is and whether it's ageable. Average ones can age about 3 to 7 years. Best of the best, 15 plus. Here, again, cost is going to vary. So I would look to spend at least$30 on a high quality bottle. However, I think you could probably get a good weeknight bottle for $20. I would look towards Chile for more of a budget friendly option and probably Friuli in Italy as well versus if you're going to go for something from Bordeaux or something from the US, I would probably go $30 upwards, for something a little more higher quality. Now in terms of food, really play with it. When I was doing research on this, I found a little bit of everything. And it and, again, it's gonna depend on, like, that style of Merlot that you get. So if you have something that's a little more fruit forward, you might want a little bit more of a lighter food, like or, like when I say lighter, I mean, just, like, not as rich. So something like pizza, barbecue chicken, mac and cheese with bacon. If you have something that's a little more robust, something a little earthier, you might want something more complex in flavor, like beef short rib or rack of lamb. Okay. That that's our conversation on Merlot. What do you think? Have I convinced you to give Merlot another chance so you can go out and buy yourself a bottle? I really hope so. I I've definitely changed my own mind, so at least I've done that. As a reminder, I'm always curious to hear your thoughts on this episode, and be sure to let me know what Mariahal I should cover next. So far, I think we've gotten to Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, Carmenere, Riesling, Barbera, and now Merlot. I may have missed one, but I I tried to look back and make sure I didn't miss any. Let me know what Grape Friday do you wanna know next. Just message me on Instagram at corkandfizz or email me, haley@korkandfizz.com. Also, if you have enjoyed this podcast, if you've learned anything from these podcasts and and gotten more confident in the world of wine, I would really appreciate it if you could take a second to rate it and leave a review. You can leave reviews on Apple Podcasts or on an app called or a website called Podchaser. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. I release new episodes every Wednesday. In next week's episode, I'll be interviewing a new friend of mine that I met on my Walla Walla trip. Turns out, she's a Croatian wine expert. Like, what are the odds? I'm so lucky. She spends half of her life in Croatia and is incredibly passionate about the wine scene there. You're gonna learn stuff on this podcast that you can't read about in books and you'd have a hard time finding online because people just don't know about wine in Croatia. It's a very unknown area with so much to explore, and we're gonna talk about it in next week's episode. Thanks again for listening, and don't forget to grab your free ClassPass at corkandfizz.com/freeclasspass to join my virtual tasting club, the Core Crew, and taste wine with me live from the comfort of your home for free. Cheers.