Merlot may be our official under-appreciated red grape.

If you saw the movie Sideways, you know what Miles thought of Merlot (I can't write it here in a family paper). But it is, I think, important to remember that Merlot has an illustrious history and continues to deserve our attention.

After Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot is the great grape of Bordeaux. It is a standard component in the region's greatest wine — first growths and so on down the list. It's always there; it's only a question of what percentage it will hold in the blend from year to year.

Thanks to New World efforts to bring the grape's expression to a level of excellence, there are also extensive plantings today in California, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia. Merlot is close to Cabernet Sauvignon in the total acres planted worldwide.

A well-made Merlot is from grapes that are harvested late in the season and gives a rich blackberry and plum palate with soft tannins. New oak can add some toast flavors too. But an early harvest can be good too, giving a wine with lighter body than the late harvest wines, with lower alcohol and more acidity, and a palate that tends toward red fruit rather than black — raspberries and very ripe strawberries.

Like any grape, it has great expressions, medium ones and those you spit out and are sorry you paid the money for. I thought we'd take a look today at a great one:

2006 Robert Young Estate Winery Merlot, Alexander Valley, Calif., $60.49, Harvest Market, Bedford and elsewhere. Alexander Valley is its own American Viticultural Area (sort of like a DOC in Europe) on the northern end of Sonoma. The vines in the valley go back to the middle of the 19th century. There are wineries there, and other wineries that use grapes grown in the valley — Rodney Strong, Silver Oak and Chateau St. Jean among them. And, yes, it was Robert Young the actor who got the estate going, converting prune orchards over to wine. Let's take a look:

Bright purple hue, medium to opaque core, clean nose, medium intensity nose of black grapes, plum coming through most noticeably. Dry palate with surprisingly good acidity for a Merlot, and on the palate the blackberry surges forth with the plum alongside it, and a hefty dose of background vegetal flavors, coming with age (harvested in 2006), moving toward the more typically European style. Medium tannin, medium-plus alcohol (14.6 percent abv), medium flavor intensity. Long finish of black fruit and vegetal.

I have followed these wines for a number of years now. I will be on the hunt for more recent vintages, where the fruit will be more foreword. The 2006 is buy now/drink now. It's past its peak; but still respectable European style. 87 points.

Jim Beauregard is a local wine and beer writer who can be reached at regardingwine@aol.com.