Tips for Selecting a Merlot Wine

"Hi, I'm Tish Cooper and I'm Amanda Persico for expertvillage.com at Joseph Filippi Winery, we're going to talk today about some wine selections. A little bit about merlot, merlot is one of the two primary varieties of Bordeaux France, it grows well in many different regions, it expresses itself differently which is why merlot is such a popular variety. In a cooler climate it's got more of a vegetable finner, green bean, asparagus character, down here in the Cucamonga Valley our merlots are a lot more berry. That huge California fruit, in your face, dark cherry character, dark black berries, we use a lot of oak to influence the merlots. In France they use all French oak naturally, here we are using a combination of American and French Oak. Hopefully this stuff is expressed on the back labels to help you choose which wines and to help you know which wines you prefer so you can pay attention and keep track."