Merlot Resurrected

For those who may have forgotten, “Sideways” was a popular film that caused many in the wine industry to convulse because of a single line of dialogue.

Merlot is a superb grape variety, and the wine it produces can be reliably more interesting in many ways than cabernet sauvignon, to which it is related. They are part of the same "Bordeaux" grape family. Relu1907/Shutterstock

Nine Sonoma County wine lovers gathered at a table in a Petaluma restaurant on a recent Thursday evening to pull corks on 16 different classic bottles of wine.

Included in the lineup was a bottle from 1924, another from 1961, an iconic Napa Valley cabernet, two other red wines from Bordeaux, a 40-year-old barbaresco and a 1997 German auslese for dessert.