HEY
Merlot, the Horror
Merlot, everyone's favorite red wine in the '90s, reached its trendoid apotheosis when it was name-checked not once but twice on Seinfeld ("The Rye," in January 1996, and "The Yada Yada," in April 1997, in which Kramer memorably uttered: "I live for merlot."). Yep, merlot was hot, it was happening, it was what we all wanted to drink—or what we all wanted to talk about drinking.
But, oh, how grape expectations pop. Due to massive overexposure, merlot, a perfectly respectable and delicious wine, has hit the skids in recent years. Usually, I don't feel bad about toppling food trends. In fact, I worked on a story in the January 1997 issue of Food & Wine that put merlot on a "tired trend" list. But I did get upset when I heard the following from a friend: Just the other day, my buddy was dining at Lupa, a restaurant owned by Food Network superstar Mario Batali. He asked for a glass of merlot. "We don't have merlot," the waiter sniffed, rolling his eyes....