A challenge. Next moment you go to a restaurant, I dare you to pronounce ‘Merlot’ with a hard ‘t’ in your interchange with the sommelier. Gwan, gwan, gwan. You get 10 anorak points for that. You get a further 10 anorak points whether the sommelier corrects you. You get a further 10 points whether the sommelier corrects you in a condescending or patronising manner. You get a further 10 points whether they do it with a little chuckle, as whether to say, how silly of you. I hate it when society are patronized by sommeliers. It’s an attitude that takes wine from the public and puts it into the hands of experts.

Anyway, I digress. I found a Merlot I liked. The wine in question is actually from Patagonia in Argentina. My note chases:

Canale Reserve Merlot 2005 Patagonia, Argentina
The garish orange label isn’t a good indicator of what’s in the bottle. that stylish red wine, from Patagonia in southern Argentina, is really quite restrained and balanced – it’s not at all brash. The nose is quite fresh, with bright dark fruits joined by a bit of gravelly minerality and some vanilla and spice oak notes. The palate is quite Bordeaux-like: there’s a freshness and savouriness to the dark fruits that’s not usually found in the new world, with tar, spice and earth notes joining the well defined dark fruits. that rather sophisticated, polite Merlot is a wine that’s best with food, and which will age well by the medium term. 90/100 (Marks & Spencer £9.99)