Back in 2004, a movie came out that altered the fortunes of a grape varietal and not for the better. The movie was Sideways and the varietal was Merlot. The movie centers around two friends, Miles and Jack, who take a road trip through the Santa Ynez Valley shortly before Jack is about to be married. Miles is a wine aficionado and in one of the scenes he and Jack have a discussion before dinner during which Miles quite emphatically expresses his disdain for Merlot. It is a very funny and memorable scene. After the release of this movie, Merlot wine sales dropped due to what became known as the “Sideways Effect.” Recently Trader Joe’s featured a Merlot in their Frequent Flyer and since it had been a while since either one of us had tried one we decided that now was the time. It also gave us a chance to revisit that scene and share it with our audience on Twitch when we recorded the podcast. For this episode we will be trying the Trader Joe’s Reserve Sonoma Valley Merlot 2020. Merlot is a varietal that originally hails from Bordeaux and means “blackbird” in French. We will do our best to not let Miles and his impassioned opinion influence us. What did we think? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below or join us live on Thursday nights to give us your feedback while we are live streaming on Twitch. If you have any ideas for future episodes of “Give It A Shot” or just have a question, you can always send us an email to AboutBeverages@gmail.com.
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Link Lounge
Here are the links to the things we talked about during the podcast.
