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John Nugent and his wife are the proprietors of Colorado Wine Company in Eagle Rock (2114 Colorado Boulevard). He stops by from time to time to give la.foodblogging readers a taste of the wine business, from the inside. This is not an advertisement and no promotional fee or arrangement has been made between Colorado Wine Co. and la.foodblogging

A friend of ours lost money on this bet recently so we thought we’d clear up a common misunderstanding so none of you wander into your local sports bar and interrupt the football game to bet someone about the pronunciation of “Meritage.” A “Meritage” wine is not French and does not rhyme with “triage”, it rhymes with “heritage” and is a marketing term dreamt up in 1988 by a group of American vintners. This proprietary name was chosen from 6000 entries and is a combination of the words “merit” and “heritage”, used to identify wines made from the noble Bordeaux varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc most commonly, but can include Petit Verdot and Malbec or for white Meritage, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Sauvignon Vert. The Meritage Society believes strongly in these blends having the same status as noble single varietals and wish to separate them out from the more basic “table wines” of the wine world. Isn’t it odd that “table wine” has a pejorative connotation? Do we put our fancy pure varietals on something besides a table? I think we should put a moratorium on new marketing names for wines. It’s confusing enough already.