Merlot's Reputation Problem, and Why It Was Always Unfair

Merlot is one of the most widely planted red wine grapes in the world, and for most of the 1990s it was one of the most popular. Then a single film changed everything. Today's episode covers the Sideways effect — what actually happened to Merlot's reputation and why — and makes the case that the dismissal was always unfair, built on a caricature of the grape rather than an honest assessment of what it can do at its best.