Merlot

Merlot is a variety of Wine grape used to create a popular red wine. Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints of berry and currant. Most connosieurs consider it "easy to drink" when compared to other red wines, particularly its traditional blending partner Cabernet Sauvignon. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot an ideal grape to blend with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet. Many Merlots are made in a style popular with newer red wine drinkers (though to be clear, good merlots accompanying appropriate food are popular with many regular wine drinkers as well).

It is produced primarily in France and California, and on a lesser scale in Australia, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, and Slovenia. Most wines from Bordeaux contain at least some Merlot, and in the regions of Pomerol and Saint-Emilion it is not unusual for Merlot to comprise the majority of the blend. One of the most famous and rare wines in the world, Ch�teau Pétrus is almost all Merlot.

White Merlot is lighter in color than Merlot because some of the grapes are not crushed before going to press, thus minimizing the color extracted from the skins. Some producers of White Merlot include Sutter Home, Forest Glen, and Beringer. It normally has a hint of raspberry flavor. White Merlot was reputedly first marketed in the late 1990s.

Merlot is also the name of an XML Editor.

Merlot is an online education technology project sponsored by the California State University System.