Meritage as in heritage

This post will no doubt lead to much (perhaps well-deserved) heckling but I have heard the California term for blended wine pronounced as though it was French so much that I was beginning to question my own memory (plus I've been seeing several wines use the word Meritage that included non-Bordeaux grapes).

By coincidence I began drinking wine shortly after a group of Cali winemakers decided to 'codify' the blending of grapes into wines in that state. I don't think there is any actual commercial regulation that resulted (e.g. DOC). My memory is that the original definition was even more rigid about the percentage of Cab vs. Merlot but that may be old age tricking my mind. I was pretty sure though that the pronunciation was as the title of this post suggests so I researched & found the following:

http://www.meritagewine.org/our-story

In light of the expectations of a lot of discussion surrounding the Hanna Nicole, I decided unilaterally to vet this & share. If this puts me in ecola's 'jagoff' categaory, so be it.

Not a DOC but maybe a trademark.

The original standards for Meritage seem to have been more strict. The New Wine Lover's Companion 2nd edition 2003 (there's a 3rd edition out) said of Meritage--"it must be the winery's best wine of it's type" and "its production is limited to a maximum 25,000 cases per vintage.

Now it looks like the wine simply must be a blend of at least 2 of the Bordeaux grapes with no single variety making up more than 90%.

http://www.meritagewine.org/faqs
What do you have to do in order to use Meritage on a wine label?
To obtain a license to use the Meritage name, the wine must be a blend of at least two of the traditional red or white Bordeaux grape varieties. No single variety can make up more than 90% of the blend. Once this criteria is met, you can download a membership application (link) and questionnaire (link) and send it to the address listed on the agreement.

www.phillywinefinder.com

Well, they also have to pay a dollar per case. That keeps some wineries making blends from using the name meritage. Some wineries dont need to in order to sell the wines, so why pay? They use "proprietary blend" instead. Some also argue that in the average store, there is no section for meriatge, so they get thrown into the "other reds" or "unusual reds" bins.
--T

One can only imagine how high Opus One's sales would go if they'd kick in the buck to get the Meritage label

Just from working in the wine stores, Meritage does not seem to matter to most customers. There are a few that insist on having the Meritage on the label, but I find that it is just a sales pitch to make a wine seem more desireable. Just tasted the Opus One 2006 yesturday, nice wine but not worth the $$$$.

That's a little like looking at Angelina Jolie's 3rd grad picture & predicting how she was going to look in a bathing suit in 15 years. Some things develop in their own sweet time.

Great point.