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From Bordeaux to Meritage

Jan 15, 2008 |  WineBratSF (7) |  Events, Guest Bloggers, Wine Industry |  8 comments

Glass of meritageAs I eagerly anticipate Winter Wineland in northern Sonoma, I stumbled across an article about the history of meritage. Since I remember a quandary at a recent wine gathering, I thought I'd note that the Meritage Association is celebrates its 20th anniversary this week.

For those of you who might think that meritage is a fancy French term, like MareAhTage, think again. It's really a made up name for a down home blend, a combination of the works "merit" and "heritage". It was coined in 1985, when the feds only allowed the name table wine to be used on more low brow blends containing less than 75% of a single varietal; read: MUTT. That's right kids, Carlo Rossi could NOT be more than 75% concord grapes!

Since we are legally prevented from borrowing any existing wine terms (yeah well there is a reason we aren't real popular with the French you see) like Champagne or Bordeaux, the wine industry in the upstart New World - basically anywhere but Italy and France folks - decided we needed our own label for these new mixtures we like to plunk down on Thursdays with our pizza.

I'm going to be on the hunt this weekend, so check back soon for a report on the joys of Sonoma County meritage!
 Events, Guest Bloggers, Wine Industry 8 comments

8 Comments

#1Captain Caveman said,  

Jan 21, 2008 at 12:04PM  

Syn. Claret, Proprietary Red Wine.

See also:

Bordeaux Vin Rouge.
----------------------------

The difference between a "Meritage" and a "Meritåge" (properly pronounced with one's nose in the air) is simply a matter of how much you are willing to admit you paid for it.

i.e."Yes sir, this is the Meritage...If you want the Meritåge that's $25 more."

#2Andy said,  

Feb 09, 2008 at 10:23PM  

Hmmm, I always thought Claret was a name the British used for wine from Bordeaux. The difference being that US Meritage, Proprietary Red, and Red Table Wines are wines made in the US with the traditional Bordeaux varietal blends.

So am I onto something here? Is Claret a term the British use for wine made in Bordeaux, do they call ALL Bordeaux-style blends Clarets (from anywhere in the world), or do they actually make Bordeaux-style wine in Britain and call it Claret?

#3wine_brat_sf said,  

Feb 12, 2008 at 10:12AM  

Well, Claret is sort of a catch all in my experience.
It was used for the Bordeaux blends in England, but the difference with Claret vs Meritage is that Claret isn't a legal term where Meritage is. At least here...
In the US it's more generic, like you said - "red table wine". Not exactly detailed. Apparently, it's a legal naming term only in the EU.

Personally, it's all Red Blend to me!

My mission: To find the best red blend that my $5 can buy!

#4Captain Caveman said,  

Feb 18, 2008 at 09:44AM  

In the interest of advancing infallibility, I'll defer to Jancis Robinson, M.W. in THE OXFORD COMPANION TO WINE 2nd Edition (c) 1999, which, in my office at least, is generally considered to be the definitive tome of intelligence.

"MERITAGE - (rhymes with heritage), name coined in 1981, by the winner in a competition in the Los Angeles Times, for American wines made from a blend of grape varieties in the image of Bordeaux, devised to distinguish these wines from varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc., mostly useful on wine lists. This trademarked name is legally available on labels only to American wineries that agree to join the Meritage Association and uphold the following requirements of wine labelled Meritage: made exclusively from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Petite Verdot grapes for red wines and Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle for whites; produced in quantities of no more than 25,000 cases a year; one of the two most expensive wines produced by the winery. Nearly but not all of the members are in California."

If anyone has a buddy over at B.A.T.F., it might be worth comparing their stipulations, though likely they are identical.

#5Captain Caveman said,  

Feb 18, 2008 at 10:08AM  

Jancis Robinson, M.W. in THE OXFORD COMPANION TO WINE 2nd Edition (c) 1999,


"CLARET - English (not American) term generally used to describe red wines from the Bordeaux region, or red bordeaux. Claret has also been used as a generic term for a vaguely identified class of red table wines supposedly drier, and higher in tannins, than those wines sold as generic burgundy (although, in the history of Australian wine shows, it has been known for the same wine to win both claret and burgundy classes).

History
In medieval France, most red wine was the result of a short fermentation, usually of no more than one or two days. The short period of contact with the grape skins meant that the resultant wines were pale in color, and were probably very simmilar to the rosés of today. Such wines exported from Bordeaux were known as vinum clarum, vin clar, or claret, and it is from this the last of these that the English term claret is derived. Other much darker wines were also made by pressing the remaining skins, effectively the same as modern press wine, and these were known as vinum rubeum purum, bin vermelh, or pinpin.

Although the term 'clairet' was widely used during the medieval period in France, the word claret does not appear to have been used at all extensively in England until the 16th Century. In the second half of the 17th Century a new type of wine, of much higher quality and deeper colour, began to be produced in the Graves and on the sands of the Medoc to the north west of Bordeaux. These wines, the provenance of specific properties, where close attention was paid to the grape selection, improved methods of vinification, and the use of new oak barrels, became known by the begining of the 18th Century as New French Clarets, and the earliest and most famous of them were Haut-Brion, Lafite, Latour, and Margaux."

The only thing I would venture to add to Ms. Robnson's comment is that several American and Australian wineries have labeled various proprietary red blends as "Claret" in modern times (Reverie Estate, and Steltzner Stag's Leap, to cite two), further stretching the practical definition of the word.

#6Captain Caveman said,  

Feb 18, 2008 at 10:10AM  

I'll take wine for $2000, Alex!

#7Andy said,  

Feb 18, 2008 at 11:05PM  

Ah, well, thank you Caveman and Winebrat for further "clar"-ifying the varying world rules for claret/meritage.

#8Jessica Yadegaran said,  

Apr 10, 2008 at 05:10PM  

Red blends are so great, potato potatoh. :)
Cheers,
Jessica
www.ibabuzz.com/corkheads

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