Beau at BasicJuice beat me to the punch with a nice post on the pronunciation of Meritage. I was just thinking this morning that it was about time I got around to writing about this very topic.
Long Island makes some great Bordeaux-style blends, many of which call themselves Meritages and when our friends Paul and Sara were visiting, we took them to several of the better producers on the Island…and we heard both "mer-it-AHJ" and "MER-it-idge" from winemakers, tasting room staff and the general public.
Since then, I’ve made a point of asking people when the topic comes up…and I’ve adopted (correctly) the rhymes-with-heritage pronunciation.
One great tasting room worker at Macari Vineyards put it in terms I appreciated "People want it to sound French…because they think French wine is the best, which is complete crap."
Some of my favorite red blends on the Island include:
- Macari’s own 2001 Bergen Road ($40)
- Macari’s uber-blend, Alexandra 2000 ($75)
- Martha Clara Vineyards’ 2000 6025 ($35)
- Lieb Family Cellars’ 2002 Meritage ($55)
- Bedell Cellars’ 2000 Cupola ($40)