What is the difference between white merlot and a cabernet?
by 
BobSaccamano-is-back
ANSWERS: 3
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Is there a white merlot? I thought this was merlot; a dry red wine made from a widely grown grape originally used in the Bordeaux region of France for blending.
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The first difference is the grape used. The second is that White Merlot is a blush wine and Cabernet is a red wine. Would you like more detail, or is this sufficient?
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Two different red grapes (both members of the Bordeaux 5 though [I assume that we are talking about Cabernet Sauvignon and not Cabernet Franc]). Any red grape can be made into a blush wine (sometimes called "white" as in white zinfandel or white merlot or white cabernet sauvignon). This is because the flesh and juice of the grape are "white" and the skin imparts color to the wine depending on how long it macerates or steeps. A couple of hours to a day is enough to give a wine "blush" and up to a week to produce the deep, purple-red colors we usually associate with red wine. You can press red grapes immediately and get "white" (or nearly so) juice. This is done occasionally to produce sparkling wines from around the world. Blush sparkling wines are usually blended from white and red after the initial fermentation. I think that the use of the term white is probably a marketing ploy to avoid the word blush. I've always thought that it just makes everything a little more confusing.
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