White Merlot: The Pink Blush Wine From a Red Grape

White Merlot is a pink, lightly sweet blush wine made from the red Merlot grape. Like White Zinfandel, the “white” is misleading: the juice is separated from the dark skins early, so it turns pale pink instead of red, and some grape sugar is usually left in the wine. Sutter Home, which makes one, describes cherry and raspberry flavors and a crisp finish. It suits anyone who finds dry wine too sharp, and it is an easy match for barbecue and mildly spicy food.

What White Merlot is

Merlot is one of Bordeaux’s red grapes, best known for red wine (our Merlot wine guide covers those). White Merlot takes the same grape and makes a pink wine from it. Wikipedia’s article on rosé explains that some American producers of sweeter pink wines added “white” or “blanc” to the grape name, and it gives White Merlot as an example, alongside White Zinfandel and Cabernet Blanc.

These wines are often called blush wines. According to Wikipedia, the word goes back to a 1976 visit by wine writer Jerry Mead to Mill Creek Vineyards in Sonoma County, where Charles Kreck had a pale pink Cabernet that was too dark to call “White Cabernet”. Mead joked about “Cabernet Blush”, and Kreck trademarked “Blush” in 1978. Wikipedia says the term now usually means a relatively sweet pink wine.

	White Merlot
Grape	Merlot (a red grape)
Color	Pink
Style	Blush (a sweeter style of rosé)
Sweetness	Usually off-dry to lightly sweet; check the producer
Flavors (Sutter Home)	Sweet cherry, raspberry, crisp finish
Serve	Chilled

How it’s made

White Merlot is made the same way as White Zinfandel, just with a different grape. Two steps decide the style.

The color comes from brief skin contact. Wine Folly explains that rosé is made by straining the juice of red grapes from the skins before it becomes too dark. The usual method is maceration, where crushed red grapes sit in their juice for a short time before the winemaker separates the juice and ferments it. Wine Folly also describes saignée (“bleeding”), where some juice is drained off early from a tank meant for red wine, and blending a little red wine into white, which it says is uncommon for still rosé.

The sweetness comes from stopping fermentation early. Yeast turns grape sugar into alcohol. Wine Folly notes that it is possible to stop fermentation before all the sugar is used, for example by chilling or filtering the wine. The sugar left behind is called residual sugar. Because less sugar has turned into alcohol, a wine made this way also tends to be lighter in alcohol than a dry one.

Producers don’t all publish how they make their White Merlot, and Sutter Home’s product page doesn’t describe its method. Treat the steps above as how the style is generally made, not a recipe for one brand.

How sweet is White Merlot?

Wikipedia lists White Merlot among the sweeter blush wines and says blush wines typically have about 2.5% residual sugar, which is about 25 grams per liter. For scale, under European labeling terms for still wine, “dry” allows up to 4 grams per liter (9 with high acidity), “medium dry” up to 12 grams (18 with high acidity) and “medium” up to 45 grams. Wine Folly notes that noticeably sweet wines start at around 35 grams per liter. Sources differ on blush wine, though: Wine Folly puts most White Zinfandel, the closest relative, at only about 3 to 5 grams per liter. So a blush wine can be anything from just off-dry to medium sweet, and it is still far less sweet than a dessert wine.

Sutter Home’s page describes its White Merlot as “juicy & crisp” with sweet cherry notes, and lists White Zinfandel, Moscato and Red Moscato as similar wines. It doesn’t publish a residual sugar figure on the product page, so the 2.5% figure is a guide to the style, not a spec for any one bottle.

Note: “White Merlot” on a label names a pink wine style. If sweetness matters to you, check the back label or the producer’s website before you buy.

White Merlot vs White Zinfandel and dry rosé

	White Merlot	White Zinfandel	Dry rosé
Grape	Merlot	Zinfandel	Many red grapes
How it’s made	Short skin contact; some sugar left	Short skin contact; some sugar left	Short skin contact; fermented dry
Sweetness	Off-dry to lightly sweet	Off-dry (Wine Folly)	Dry

In our view, the two blush wines are close cousins, and if you like one you will probably like the other. White Zinfandel is far easier to find; Wine Folly calls it possibly the most popular rosé sold in the US by volume.

Merlot Blanc is a different thing

Don’t confuse White Merlot with Merlot Blanc. According to Wikipedia, Merlot Blanc is a rare white grape that was long thought to be a white mutation of Merlot, but genetic analysis showed it is a natural cross of Merlot and Folle Blanche, a grape associated with Cognac. Wikipedia says plantings were first discovered in 1891 and that it is permitted in several Bordeaux appellations, including AOC Bordeaux, Côtes de Bourg and Entre-Deux-Mers, where it plays a minor role in blends. It makes white wine, not a pink one, and you are unlikely to see it named on a US shelf.

Brands

Sutter Home Family Vineyards, the St. Helena, California, winery that also makes White Zinfandel, sells a White Merlot. Its product page lists the wine in a 1.5-liter bottle and shows gold medals from competitions including the New World International in 2017 and 2018 and the Los Angeles International in 2018. Other California brands sell White Merlot too; we’ve only described the one whose official product page we could check.

We don’t give White Merlot a value verdict here, because our verdicts follow how we rate wine: a published critic score for a named vintage plus US prices from at least two retailers. Until a White Merlot meets that bar, go by the label, the price and the producer’s description.

Food pairing

Sutter Home suggests serving its White Merlot chilled with barbecue, seafood and “any dish that has a little extra kick”. Our picks:

• Mildly spicy food. Thai and Vietnamese dishes, Cajun shrimp, spicy chicken wings. In our view, a little sweetness and modest alcohol make chili heat feel gentler.
• Barbecue and sweet-sour sauces. Sugary sauces can make dry wine taste thin and tart, so a wine with some sweetness is the safer choice.
• Picnic and brunch food. Ham sandwiches, chicken salad, fruit salad.

We’d avoid pairing it with a rich steak or a dessert that is sweeter than the wine.

How to serve it

Serve White Merlot chilled, as Sutter Home recommends, in a standard white wine glass. Large 1.5-liter bottles are handy for a party; once opened, keep the bottle in the fridge with a stopper. Our guide to how long wine lasts after opening says how many days to expect.