We’ve all seen them, the elusive 100-point rated wine. This selection of top-rated Merlot wines taught us a lesson about point scores and Merlot. Want to learn more about wine? Join Wine Folly → https://wfol.ly/newsletter
Chapters:
0:15 – The General Opinion of Merlot
1:05 – What We’re Doing Today
2:06 – The Wines In The Blind Tasting
2:08 – Pétrus 2012
2:19 – Masseto 2015
2:31 – Pétrus “Saute Loup” 2014
2:40 – Vérité “La Muse” 2016
2:53 – Kapcsándy “Roberta’s Reserve” 2011
3:10 – Château La Conseillante 2020
3:23 – San Giusto A Rentennano “La Ricolma” 2018
3:35 – Castello di Ama “L’Apparita” 2015
3:49 – Château Lafleur “Le Pensées” 2020
3:59 – Duckhorn “Three Palms” Merlot 2019
4:20 – The “Veblen Effect”
4:50 – Merlot Regions: Tuscany, Bordeaux, North Coast California
5:38 – Disparity Between Wine Ratings and Anchoring Bias
6:32 – The Results: Which Wines Performed The Best?
7:33 – Conclusions
Notes and Sources
See full listing and tech sheets for all wines here: https://winefolly.com/videos/what-are-100-point-rated-wines-actually-like-all-merlot/
Special thanks to J-L-C for opening up their cellar for this tasting. We couldn’t have done this without you.
The way the tasting was set up was 2 single blind tastings with reveals between each tasting. Tasters knew what bottles were being tasted but not the order. You could call it a “casual” blind. The goal wasn’t to identify the wines blind, but to obfuscate the brands so that the price bias was less present.
Masseto was mentioned as being in Bolgheri. Technically, the wine is a Toscana IGT and the new winery (as of 2019) is located in Bolgheri. The vineyard is Toscana IGT.
Château Lafleur “Le Pensées” is indeed a second wine of Château Lafleur. On their website it says “a much coveted second wine”
San Giusto – In Italian the “gi” is pronounced like “j”
We were not paid by any winery mentioned or included in this video.
Sideways Movie 2004 excerpt cited with fair use. All ratings cited with fair use (e.g. ratings not used for marketing purposes).
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50 Comments
Always informative and relatable. The best !!
I wanna be you- rolling up to a bougie tasting in a convertible Porsche😎
Really enjoyed the video! Would have liked to have seen the scores for all of the wines.
Love your channel, thanks for sharing the information! My personal favorite is Chianti Classico (might be influenced by my visit to the region).
Mine interior has black leather 😉 very nice tasting and like always very educational.
I prefer St. Emilion over Pomerol but some of them have a high percentage of Cabernet Franc. At the same time, most would still qualify as Merlot according to California wine label rules.
That look on your face with 13 K worth of wine and glass ware! LOL 🙂
https://youtu.be/zW4RmHLgwf0?si=_oLQuoqyA5kQSLY-&t=64
So the question I have though is what was the anti Veblen? What was the lowest price best bang for buck? The Wolf in sheep clothing?
Rating should be for lesser wines? "Great" wines teach us about our own senses + what people can do with what nature gives! They also improve our perceptive vocabulary, right? Please elaborate 4 each!? Your opinion counts big time! Btw–you are great! Very clear, precise. Thank you much!
Someday I will be at a wine tasting where the cheap stuff is a hundred dollars a bottle. But not in this lifetime…
interesting to note that Merlot wines were less appreciated and to some extent even disparaged a century ago, long before our modern age of wine media and critics… nice video!
I definitely would love to taste these wines 🥰
stop telling normies that merlot is good! I'm enjoying the discount!
@Madeline, have you ever attended the Food and Wine Festival in Austin? I think you'd appreciate it. 🙂
What is the deal with Merlot hating? Merlot can be delicious.
Water saw its Creator and blushed😊😊😊
Love this! And you rocking the WineFolly pin.
Thank you Merlot is often overlooked ❤🍷🤙🏽. Wish you guys would come to Arroyo for Petite Sirah some day 🙏🏼
All the wines from diferent vintages….not the best way to compare
More than 10x more expensive? You mean 45x more expensive!!!
You could buy 45 duckhorns for that one Petrus
One unanswered question. What was the best QPR of the wines you tried?
Love your videos
Nice post. Good editing. Keep up the good work
Paloma! Spring mountain. Napa Valley.
in which order the wines were tasted?
Do you think the order of tasting affects de results?
Pinto and Merlot are metaphors in that movie. Paul G is Pinot, thin skinned. His buddy is Merlot, grows everywhere and is easy. He wants a woman who can appreciate Pinot (like him).
so you want people to join for $2.99 a month but you're filming from a Porsche convertible…ok
You should try Merlot from DO Vale dos Vinhedos, in Brasil (with an s). There are too many hidden gems from that particular terroir.
I'm curious if you got any Petrus indicators from the Saute Loup, or is the wine making so different you don't get any. I have a bottle of a vineyard that was taken by Petrus the vintage after mine.. Just wonder if I can expect some of the experience without the 4 digit price tag.
New World Pahlmeyer and Leonetti did see Duckhorn 3 Palms. Extremely jealous of you for getting to try Petrus ❤
Washington State Add- Ons….Long Shadows Pedestal, North Star Reserve and Januik Merlot..
Great share, thank you.
What’s the wine journal used for the tasting notes??
Really enjoyed this one
merlot based is not merlot, over 90% though, is merlot; an invite to this tasting is good, so there you go.
Miles didn’t like Merlot because it was Victorias favorite wine not because he thought Merlot was not good.
Damn, Forget to Mention Robert Foley. So instrumental to creating some incredible Merlots in Napa….Pride, Paloma and his Own Robert Foley Howell Mt. Merlot 💕
Saw Sally Johnson Pride/ Mullan Road/ Cakebread in video as well 🍷
Saw the bike then heard the "marginal gains" comment haha.
Excellent.
any 100 point wine list must include, La tour & chateau Lynch-Bages
Wow. The Italians triumph again… Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo; Italian baroque music by Vivaldi, Corelli; Palladian architecture; their amazing cuisine from all over the mountainous peninsula. Thank you for this very well explained comparison between regions and prices. God bless.
100pt wine is a Unicorn.
A fantasy.
This implies there will never be a better wine. That the 100pt.
Im sure its a good drop, but in this monetised youtube world, 100 pt wine is nothing more than click bait.
Great content! One day, Nappa Valley will come to us 🙏
The more expensive wines with great history won… and they would be expected too
why this boring for the birds "sideways" keep popopping out by allegedly serious cognoscenti puzzles me cheers!
Tasting blind is the only true way to be fair. I honestly could care less who made the wine or how much it costs. If it’s a banger and it cost $10 then great, I’ll buy a bunch of it. If it costs $100, fine, I’ll save it for a special occasion. All I want is great wine…..getting too old to drink bad wine.
A wine joke often missed from Sideways is that Miles’s most prized possession is a bottle of Cheval Blanc (which is half Merlot)
What sane person drinks Merlot??
I've been very surprised by Italian Merlots in the past. They're definitely different, and not immediately identified in blind tastings. I've never tasted Petrus, and unless I'm in the right place at the right time, I never will. But I trust you and the people at that table……I'm sure it rocked!!
and I'll always enjoy the Sideways inside joke of, "I am NOT drinking any F'ing Merlot, and his prize bottle throughout the movie being, a 61 Chevel Blanc 😏😂