Merlot

Saint-Loubès near Bordeaux

Bernard Hébrard ran the Grézillac laboratory and the wine service of the Gironde chamber of agriculture. After retiring in 2003, he and his wife Marie-Odile bought a neglected estate in Saint-Loubès, between Bordeaux and Libourne, on a gravel rise over clay. The couple farm 2.24 hectares, pick by hand and age the wine for twelve months in French oak, replacing about a quarter of the barrels every year.

The Réserve Traditionnelle 2019 is 80 per cent Merlot and 20 per cent Cabernet Franc. It also comes from 2018, and if you have the choice, take the older one: at Aux Graves we prefer the vintages with some age.

Requena

In Utiel-Requena, Merlot grows alongside Bobal. From Pago de Tharsys comes the Selección Bodega 2010, 85 per cent Merlot and 15 per cent Cabernet Franc, aged twelve months in one-year-old French barrels, 3,183 bottles. The wine is now more than 15 years old; we pour it at 16 to 18 degrees into a wide glass and eat game or porcini with it.

Massís del Garraf

Caus Lubis 2006 from Can Ràfols dels Caus comes from a single vineyard in the Massís del Garraf south-west of Barcelona, planted on the model of Pomerol, on shallow soils with up to 40 per cent active lime. It fermented spontaneously, spent twelve months in barrique and then 16 years in bottle before the estate released it. In the glass it shows plum, ripe strawberry and balsamic notes.

Savièse in Valais

Oscar Hauser and Thomas Carl make about 150 bottles of Merlot 2024 in Savièse above Sion. The grapes spend three weeks on their skins, partly as whole bunches, partly destemmed, ferment spontaneously and are bottled unfiltered. The label shows a scene on the beach at Ponte Brolla in Ticino, where Merlot is the main grape. Sulphur is added only once, at bottling, and total sulphites stay below 25 milligrams per litre.