Meet Our Merlot: A Red Wine Lover's Dream
Updated: 2 hours ago
Our new Merlot is here! And you're not going to want to miss this beauty.
Starting Thursday (11/5/26) you can taste it and buy it in our tasting room in northwest Indianapolis. Made from certified sustainable grapes, it's a dry red wine with great body, velvety tannins, and cherry and raspberry wrapped in a kiss of French oak. If you love a good Cabernet, a juicy Malbec, or a splurge-worthy Bordeaux, this is your bottle. It's a red wine lover's dream.
And here's the fun part: before this wine was even a year old (super young), we entered it in the Indiana State Fair Wine & Spirits Competition, and it brought home a Silver medal. With the acidity it has to age and develop, I see gold in this wine's future.
Brent's Tasting Notes
This Merlot is reminiscent of a Right Bank Bordeaux. The nose is full of red fruit lead by cherry with raspberry close behind. Vanilla and a warm touch of cinnamon follow, with a faint hint of bay leaf in the background. As beautiful as the nose is, the highlight of this wine is on the palate where great body meet velvety tannins and bright cherry flavors with a lingering raspberry finish.
Want the full tasting notes, our favorite pairings, and a few fun facts for the dinner table? They're all on the Merlot wine page.
Stay Tuned for Our Thanksgiving Wine Guide
Our Merlot is phenomenal on its own, but add in some food and this wine is out of this world. We believe this wine is the perfect addition to the Thanksgiving table and in my next piece I'll be diving into pairing wine with your Thanksgiving meals.
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🤓 Nerd Alert ⚠️: Why Cool-Climate Wine Needs Fewer Sulfites
WARNING: Things are about to get delightfully dorky. Side-effects may include (but are not limited to): spontaneous laughter, accidental learning, curiosity cravings, and an uncontrollable urge to share fun facts with friends.
If you're someone who is concerned with sulfites in wine, sit up, you'll want to know a little bit about how climate impacts wine and how that can impact sulfite additions.
Cool climate, bright acidity. Cooler climates with shorter growing seasons often mean higher acidity in the wine. It's the same reason Indiana fruit is so well suited to sparkling wine. Without going too in-depth into the chemistry, higher acidity leads to lower pH values. Our Merlot sits at a pH of 3.6, an ideal level for a dry red. Ok Brent, why does that matter?
Lower pH, Less Sulfites. Winemakers add sulfur dioxide (SO₂), the "sulfites" you see on wine labels, to protect wine from spoilage and oxidation. The effectiveness of the sulfites drops exponentially as the pH rises - every 0.3 increase in pH doubles the amount of sulfites required to maintain the same protection.
Warm-climate reds can sometimes push a pH 4.0 or higher. At that pH, a winemaker needs about 2.5 times as much free SO₂ for the same protection as our Merlot at 3.6. Winemakers can choose to add the additional sulfites or they may choose to add acid, either way they're adding something. Our cooler weather gives this Merlot its bright acidity and lower pH allows us to make the wine with minimal intervention. You won't taste that, but we think it's worth knowing.
📚 Further Reading
Merlot wine page: tasting notes, pairings, and fun facts
Calculate Molecular SO2 (Winemaker Magazine): the math behind our Nerd Alert
Distribution of Free SO2 (Enartis): a full table of free SO₂ targets across the pH range
Use of SO2 in High-pH Wines (Purdue University)
Sulfites in Wine (Napa Valley Wine Academy)
Frequently Asked Questions
When does The Rejoicing Vine's Merlot release? It's available in our tasting room in northwest Indianapolis starting Thursday, November 5, 2026. You can also order it online through Vinoshipper.
Where can I taste red wine in Indianapolis? At The Rejoicing Vine, 8440 W 82nd St in northwest Indianapolis. We're best known for sparkling wine, but we make phenomenal still wines as well. Starting Thursday, November 5, we're also pouring our new Merlot, a dry red that won a Silver medal at the Indiana State Fair.
Is your Merlot dry or sweet? Dry. It has under 1 g/L of residual sugar and 13% ABV.
Where are the grapes grown? Our Merlot is made from certified sustainable grapes grown on Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula.
Why do cool-climate wines need fewer sulfites? Cooler weather gives grapes brighter acidity and a lower pH. At a lower pH, more of the sulfur dioxide in a wine is in its protective molecular form, so the wine needs less of it. At pH 3.6, our Merlot needs only about 40% of the free SO₂ that a wine at pH 4.0 would.
Taste Our New Red Wine in Northwest Indianapolis
Reading about wine is fun. Tasting it is better. Here's how to get a glass of our Merlot this November:
Visit our tasting room at 8440 W 82nd St in northwest Indianapolis. Bring a friend and order a pour.
Order online through Vinoshipper and we'll ship it to your door. (Online orders ship only; there's no in-store pickup option.) Find all the details on the Merlot wine page.
Join the wine club for first pours of new releases. Our club members tasted this Merlot before anyone else, and next time, that could be you.
Cheers to a red worth gathering around. We can't wait to pour it for you.
The Rejoicing Vine is a winery in northwest Indianapolis owned by Brent and Frances Kumfer and best known for sparkling wine. Our mission is to strengthen community, encourage and inspire others, and champion stewardship for Hoosiers. Cultivate Life.
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