Merlot N
French appellation
Merlot N
Use
Wine grape variety
Phenology
Bud burst: 2 days after Chasselas.
Grape maturity: mid-season, 2 weeks and a half after Chasselas.
Technological potential
The bunches are small to medium in size, winged and berries are medium in size. Merlot produces round, powerful, rich in alcohol and colored wines with relatively low acidity. These full-bodied and structured wines, with rather supple tannins, can be aged in wood barrels. The aromas are complex and elegant.
Cultivation and agronomic skills
Merlot is a moderately to strongly vigorous variety that tends to produce a lot of off shoots and suckers. Its semi-erect to horizontal bearing requires sufficient trellising. Its fertility is good and it is better to prune it short. In certain climatic conditions, there is a risk of coulure. Merlot is well suited to clay-limestone terroirs. This variety is rather sensitive to winter and spring frosts (early budburst) and appears to be not very adapted to intense drought conditions.
Description elements
The identification is based on:
– the tip of the young shoot with a high density of prostrate hairs,
– the green young leaves,
– the shoots with green internodes,
– the wedge-shaped dark green adult leaves, with five or seven lobes, an open U-shaped petiole sinus, with sometimes naked petiole veins, medium teeth with straight or convex sides, no anthocyanin coloration of veins, a goffered, very blistered leaf blade, and on the lower side of the leaves, a low to medium density of prostrate hairs,
– the round-shaped berries.