Merlot Red Wine

The merlot grape has been used in French Red Wine making for centuries, usually playing a supporting role as a blending tool in the region's famous wines, smoothing out the rougher edges of cabernet and providing a more silky finish to blends that might otherwise seem too angular. Much had been the same in California until in 1991 when the tv show "60 Minutes" did an episode on "The French Paradox", the finding that despite the fact the the French had a diet extremely high in fat and cholesterol, that they led longer and healthier lives than their fellow Americans.

Americans ate up this good news, and were ecstatic to have an official prescription to drink Red Wine. Their interest lit a fire under California Merlot sales, which increased by 40 percent after the report.