What Are 100-Point Rated Wines Actually Like? (All Merlot?!)

We’ve all seen them, the elusive 100-point rated wine. This selection of top-rated Merlot wines teaches us a lesson about point scores and Merlot.

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What's In This Video?

Join Madeline Puckette for a thrilling, uber-exclusive blind tasting of the world’s most celebrated Merlot wines. She explains how Merlot fits into the global wine scene and how the intriguing “Veblen Effect” also comes into play to illustrate the price differences between top wines from regions like Tuscany, Bordeaux, and California’s North Coast.

Get ready for the big reveal! Find out if legendary bottles like Pétrus, San Giusto, and Duckhorn live up to their glowing reputations and (sometimes) jaw-dropping price tags.

Notes and Sources

• Special thanks to J-L-C for opening up their cellar for this tasting. We couldn’t have done this without you.

• This tasting was set up as two single-blind tastings with reveals between each tasting. Tasters knew what bottles were being tasted but not the order. You could call it a “casual” blind. The goal wasn’t to identify the wines blind but to obfuscate the brands so that the price bias was less present.

• Masseto was mentioned as being in Bolgheri. Technically, the wine is a Toscana IGT, and the new winery (as of 2019) is in Bolgheri. The vineyard is Toscana IGT.

• Château Lafleur “Les Pensées” is indeed a second wine of Château Lafleur. On their website, it says, “a much-coveted second wine.”

• San Giusto - In Italian, the “gi” is pronounced like “j”

• We were not paid by any winery mentioned or included in this video.

• Sideways Movie 2004 excerpt cited with fair use. All ratings cited with fair use (e.g. ratings not used for marketing purposes).