MENDOCINO CO., 11/7/26 — Saturday is International Merlot Day, and Mendocino County has medal-winning merlots to celebrate. The county’s growers, though, crushed almost 30% less of the grape last year and got paid less for it.
The county crushed 1,819 tons of merlot from the 2025 harvest, down from 2,554 tons in 2024, according to the state’s final grape crush report. Wineries paid growers an average of $1,323 a ton for Mendocino merlot, down about 8%. The average for all red grapes in the county held steady, at about $2,263 a ton.
The county had 1,085 acres of merlot in 2025, down from 1,124 acres the year before, the state’s grape acreage report shows. Cabernet sauvignon covers 3,015 acres.
Last year’s merlot crush was the county’s smallest in at least six years, state reports show. It was about half the 3,375 tons crushed in 2022.
“Hard to say why Merlot would be drastically different than other reds,” said Rich Parducci, winemaker and managing partner at McNab Ridge Winery (and this year’s winner of the George Zeni Award, the top honor from Mendocino Winegrowers Inc.). “Sure it took a hit when `Sideways’ came out in the early 2000s, but it is still widely planted.”
The 2004 movie “Sideways” mocks merlot through its lead character, Miles Raymond, a wine snob.
Parducci’s guess: “The recent slowdown in the industry has wineries focusing their resources on other core varieties, primarily Cabernet Sauvignon.”
In an email, Parducci said he doesn’t know of any growers grafting their merlot vines over to another grape.
“Demand for all varieties is low,” he said. “Unfortunately they are likely pulling it out.”
Steve Amato, who grows grapes near Hopland, said in a June interview that the wine market has always swung this way. “All of a sudden, it’s like no one wants merlot for the next five years, and a person’s stuck with a merlot patch,” he said.
Demand once outran the county’s supply. Fetzer Vineyards introduced its Eagle Peak Merlot in 1993. In a 2013 letter to federal regulators, the company wrote that “the supply of Merlot grown in Mendocino County proved insufficient to meet growing consumer demand,” so it bought the grape from across California.
McNab Ridge’s 2022 Family Reserve Damiano Vineyard merlot, $30, won Best of Class in its price group at the 2025 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
Angelo Damiano founded the Damiano Vineyard. His daughters Adrianne, Charlotte and Judy owned it until this year, when they sold it, Parducci said. He said he doesn’t believe the vineyard was harvested this year.
Other Mendocino merlots that won medals in the past two years:
- Terra Sávia 2019 merlot, gold, 2026 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
- John Mark 2024 Avant-Courier merlot, gold, 2026 Sunset International Wine Competition.
- Artevino 2018 Estate merlot, silver, 2025 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
“I enjoy Merlot because it is one of those wines that you can enjoy by itself or pair it with anything from chicken, pork, beef, vegetarian dishes,” Parducci said. “Medium- to full-bodied, it tends to be softer than Cabernet, but still maintains a plush mid-palate with supple tannins.”