Sure, but what we’re getting at is that a wine can be a 100% Merlot wine, and not actually meet any of those generalizations. Petrus is a good example- a 100% Merlot wine from the Pomerol wine region in Bordeaux, France. I would almost guarantee that it has little in common with a bottle of Merlot from Costco other than the variety of grape and general color. Similarly, I suspect that Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Masseto Toscana IGT is going to be different than either of the other two, being grown and produced in Tuscany in the style there.
Absolutely. The tomato analogy is a very poor one. A tomato is something plucked off the vine and transported to your kitchen. The analogy would work for grapes. But wineries are not in the business of selling grapes. Transforming the grape to the wine is both an art and a science, and involves endless complexities and subtleties. Not only can Merlot be a very fine and complex wine, to me it is one of the best exemplars of the rich body and depth so typical of many California reds.
So you’re saying it’s still pretty shallow, then? 