A year of Merlot Thursday: What I learned from tasting 52 different Merlots

Looking back at The Wine Fairy archive this week, I realized something neat: July is my one-year anniversary of Merlot Thursday participation.

I first learned about #MerlotThursday while scrolling wine-related posts on Reddit. The premise is simple enough: On Thursday, you drink a Merlot and review it, in hopes of raising the profile of an under-appreciated grape.

I can’t be 100% sure, but Reddit archives seem to indicate that the tradition originated with the prolific wine taster odedi (of Odedi’s Wine Reviews). “Let’s bring Merlot back!” he urges the wine-tasting internet. And often, “Join us with your own Merlot.”

I loved the idea immediately. An underdog story and a virtual happy hour, all in one? Cool! I was just beginning my wine education at the time, and I embraced the weekly exercise as a way to develop better tasting and writing skills–and to drink some delicious wines along the way.

My Merlot Thursday adventures will continue, by the way. There’s oceans of Merlot still left to explore.

But first, here’s three things I learned from a year of taking a close look at Merlot.

Merlot has range.

Far from being a boring, one-note variety, Merlot contains multitudes. It’s perhaps not as aromatically distinctive as Cabernet Sauvignon, nor as terroir-expressive as Pinot Noir.

But Merlot is planted worldwide, and its globe-trotting cred shows. It spans countless styles, from fresh and perfumed to heavy and plummy. It can convey the influence of its climate and winemaking better than most other grapes.

A grapevine in Saint-Émilion, Bordeaux–Merlot’s historic stronghold.

Since this time last year, I’ve tasted Merlot from ten different countries and four U.S. states. I’ve run across oddities like an unoaked wild-fermented Merlot and a white Merlot from Switzerland.

I’ve had Merlot at house parties and at trade shows, in elegant steakhouses and in grotty bars, at work and at sea. In the process, I’ve pounded out over 30,000 words of Merlot reviews. I’ve given scores ranging from 2.5 (out of 10) to 9.4. (And one null score, when I felt like I was really struggling to understand a serious wine.)

Hunting the rare White Merlot at Wine Paris in February 2026.

And still, there are many expressions of Merlot that I haven’t yet written about. On my wish list for the next year are a rosé of Merlot, a sparkling Merlot, and Merlot from Mexico and from New Zealand.

Online tasting notes are a tough–but useful–exercise.

When you taste and evaluate wine in a group, primate behavior often kicks in. Differences are sorted out through status or compromise. Almost inevitably, a consensus forms.

“Are you getting mint?”

“I wasn’t at first–but now I totally am.”

Group tasting note: Done. Unless there’s a pesky thirst for debate hovering over the room, everyone miraculously finds that they’re tasting the same wine. 🤷‍♀️

When you write a wine review and publish it online–well, that’s a little different.

When tasting alone, it’s just you and the glass. You’re trying to convey the wine’s flavor and texture to someone who (likely) has not encountered that same bottle. And if they have, you already committed to your note when you hit “post”–no hedging and no buffering.

I’ll admit that it makes me nervous. The challenge is to sit down at the keyboard, stay the hell off of Vivino, and just be as true to the Merlot as I possibly can.

Merlot hides in unexpected places.

Finding a glass of Merlot to taste for the blog is an unpredictable weekly quest.

The most common occasion for my Merlot homework is a weekday lunch. The most common place is a Dallas-area restaurant.

“Do you have any Merlot?” I’ll ask, plopping myself down on a barstool.

Very often the answer is no. Merlot’s fortunes have fallen so far that many places have excised the M-word from their menus. The two by-the-glass wines on the list are invariably a Pinot and a Cab. Somms will even hide their favorite bottle of Merlot under the heading of “Cabernet Blends” to have a better chance of selling it.

The result is that I’ve had to become a bit of Merlot sleuth in order to get the job done. “No Merlot, eh? How about an affordable Bordeaux? What’s that Washington State blend–can I see the bottle? Anything off-menu? What’s in your house red?” Oh, weird…it’s Merlot.

A Merlot-dominant blend (~82%) hiding in plain sight.

At first, the search felt like a chore. But now, where I find Merlot and how I find Merlot is part of the story.

I love to write detailed tasting notes, of course. But I feel that my writing is never the most interesting when I’m rhapsodizing about blackberry and cedar.

Instead, Merlot Thursday urges me to tell a different, tiny story every week–a story that’s often about language, economics, and expectations. Where did I encounter the Merlot? How was it marketed and talked about? Did it outperform Merlot’s mediocre reputation–or the opposite?

Despite its turn-of-the-millennium death scare due to That Movie, Merlot isn’t going anywhere. It’s always going to be equally at home in grand châteaux and sitting (warm) on the back bar at happy hour.

Dear reader, I hope you will visit again on Thursday to see what we’ve been tasting–and join us with your own Merlot!

You can check out all my past #MerlotThursday reviews here.