Much Maligned Merlot

"If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving." Remember that line from "Sideways"? Called the "Sideways Effect" it made one of America's favorite wines uncool while boosting the sales of Pinot Noir. Well apparently the disdain has worn off. After years of plummeting sales Merlot is recovering. During the 12-month period ending December 7, 2007, dollar sales of domestically produced Merlots rose 6%, led by category leader Blackstone Winery, whose benchmark Merlot jumped 11.6% in sales in the last four week period alone. Blackstone Merlot is the best-selling Merlot and the single best-selling domestic red wine in the United States. Despite Pinot Noir's recent growth in popularity, sales of the variety are less than half those of Merlot.

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Tags: Blackstone Merlot, Merlot wine, Pinot Noir, Sideways, wine price, wine sales

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Wine Price and Sales. You can subscribe to any comments to this entry via RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.