Budget Wines: Merlot For Less Than $15

Merlot is not the four-letter word it once was. In fact, it's rapidly becoming a five-letter word. That word is VALUE my friends!

You see, while everybody was going on about not drinking any merlot, a funny thing happened, the crappy merlot vineyards stopped producing merlot. Well, not all of them, but a lot of them. These vineyards were grafted over to grapes that people were drinking. This change means that there are still a lot more crappy wines floating around, but the quality of merlot in the marketplace has been slowly climbing, with prices remaining stable, for close to a decade.

Quality is up and prices are stable, so what's the problem? You still telling me you don't like merlot? Today, that old canard is a sack of horse hockey. If you say you categorically don't like merlot, then you simply don't know merlot. It's not all fat and chunky and full of creamy chocolate flavors, though there's plenty of that around.

Check out some of these values, you might be surprised at what you find!

Click here for the best of merlot bottles for less than $15. 

— Gregory Del Piaz, Snooth