California Merlot: The Producers Who Never Gave Up

California Merlot had a golden decade in the 1980s and early 1990s before the Sideways effect collapsed demand almost overnight. But a handful of producers never wavered, because they knew what their best Merlot was capable of. Today's episode covers what went wrong with California Merlot in the mass market, why the criticism was always partly unfair, and the producers — led by Duckhorn Vineyards and their iconic Three Palms Vineyard — who kept making serious Merlot through the fashion cycle and emerged the other side with their reputations entirely intact.