SOMEONE called it the "Sexy" grape. (Can't remember who it was, but the name stuck) Merlot is the grape, but why the nickname? Because it is soft and lush. Dan Duckhorn (of Duckhorn Vineyards, Napa Valley) called it "seductive". Is the wine sexy? Not at the prices the grape in its most expensive exposition commands - consider the prices commanded by names such as Petrus, Le Pin, and Masseto! But there are other splendid Merlot wines which do not cost two arms and a leg.

Wine lovers quickly learn that the wines of the right bank of Bordeaux (Saint-Emilion and Pomerol) are more readily likeable and much easier to appreciate. They soon learnt too that these right bank wines are characterised by a high proportion of the Merlot grape, in a few instances as high as 100 per cent, in contrast to those from the left bank whose wines contain a majority percentage of the less lush and more reticent-tasting varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon.

On our first foray into Bordeaux some 30 years ago, we had the good fortune of having what amounted to an insider's view of Saint-Emilion through two of the most important figures in Saint-Emilion at the time, Thierry Manoncourt of Chateau Figeac and Jean-Paul Valette of Chateau Pavie to whom we had introductions from Serena Sutcliffe. Great wine growers, lovely warm and generous friends. I could not have had better tutors. Sadly they are both gone now. My model for Saint-Emilion wines remains those of Chateau Figeac and Valette's Chateau Pavie. (The new Pavie is quite different from Valette's. Incidentally Pavie 1985 is one of Valette's greatest wines.)