Free Republic

In a move that could bring a merlot low - and make a chardonnay shudder - a state lawmaker is proposing making zinfandel the official wine of California. State Sen. Carole Migden introduced the bill this week, saying the heady varietal is a "quintessential" California wine dating back to Gold Rush days and versatile enough to stand up to the spicy diversity of California cuisine. "It's about time we give it the recognition it deserves," ... Preliminary figures for the 2005 grape harvest put zinfandel at 10.4 percent of the crop, behind cabernet sauvignon's 12.5 percent. Chardonnay was the harvest...

Los Angeles – Even in the hyperbole-driven world of Hollywood, few would have predicted that a low-budget comedy about an unhappily divorced teacher and an oversexed actor would move America’s $20 billion-a-year wine market. Yet that is exactly what the Oscar-winning Sideways has done, much to the despair of vineyard owners who are growing the merlot grape. The film’s hero, a schoolmaster and wine snob played by Paul Giamatti, loathes merlot, America’s most popular red wine for the past 15 years, and loves pinot noir, its hitherto less favoured rival. On a tour of wineries near Los Angeles with his...

Okay. We get it. You need money to run the joint.You have your quarterly fundraisers and they seemed to be working out.Must you put VisaMasterCardDiscoverAmericanExpress logos all over the place now as well?It cheapens the joint.

What happens when a wine falls from grace? You get a good bottle for $10.By Kelly Alexander 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...