Sacchetto Merlot 2024
£9.75
The wine
A dry, fruity and well flavoured Merlot, full of ripe plum and blueberry fruit with delicate herbal notes. Well structured, with a hint of spice through the finish.
Merlot has been grown across the Veneto since the middle of the nineteenth century and is thoroughly at home on the alluvial soils of the plain. Italian Merlot is typically leaner and more savoury than the international model, with plum fruit and a herbal edge rather than sweetness, and it is a good deal more useful at the table for it.
The producer
Sacchetto
View all Sacchetto winesFounded in 1920 and still in family hands, Cantina Sacchetto sits in the heart of the Veneto. Filiberto Sacchetto runs it today alongside his son Paolo and daughter Beatrice, overseeing every stage themselves with a mix of tradition and a willingness to try things.
The Veneto is Prosecco country, and Sacchetto work across the appellation's tiers: the broad Prosecco DOC that covers most of the region, and the smaller Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG in the hills north of Treviso, where the vineyards are steeper and hand-worked. Almost all of it is made by the Charmat method, the second fermentation taking place in pressurised tank rather than in bottle, which is what keeps Glera's delicate pear and white-flower aromatics intact.
In 2022 the estate earned Equalitas certification, the Italian standard that audits the social, environmental and economic sides of sustainability through biodiversity, carbon and water footprint and growing practice. Investment in modern vinification has given them a range of still and sparkling wines that shows what the Veneto does best at a price that rarely disappoints.
