Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course, Episode 8 – Merlot

Merlot is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints of berry, plum, and currant. Its softness and “fleshiness”, combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot an ideal grape to blend with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon. This flexibility has helped to make it one of the most popular red wine varietals in the United States and Chile.

This is the eighth episode of Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course, a beautifully filmed tour of the world of wine presented and written by Jancis Robinson and based in dozens of stunning locations on four continents.

Each of the ten half-hour programmes is centred on a major grape variety or theme but provides a complete wine education including how wine is made, tasted, stored and enjoyed.