If you like Merlot, the six closest wines are Carmenere, Malbec, Garnacha, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Rioja Tempranillo and Cabernet Franc. Carmenere is the nearest match, because Chile spent decades selling it as Merlot without realizing. Malbec is the easiest to find. Garnacha is the juiciest of the six. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is the one to buy for a weeknight dinner. Rioja Tempranillo swaps pure fruit for polish. Cabernet Franc is Merlot's actual parent grape and tastes like a leaner cousin.
Six wines to try if you like Merlot:
- Carmenere (Central Valley, Chile): plush black plum, cocoa, a soft herbal edge
- Malbec (Mendoza, Argentina): dark blackberry and plum, round, low grip
- Garnacha (Campo de Borja, Spain): juicy red and black cherry, supple, generous
- Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (Abruzzo, Italy): dark fruit with a savory finish, built for food
- Rioja Tempranillo (Rioja, Spain): red cherry with vanilla and toast from oak, silky
- Cabernet Franc (Loire, California): fresher, leafier, more lift, still soft
The reason this question has more than one right answer is that Merlot itself has more than one style. The same grape can be soft and plummy in one bottle and firm enough to pass for Cabernet Sauvignon in another, so two people asking for a wine similar to Merlot are often asking for opposite bottles. Most lists hand them both the same five names anyway. This one sorts the answer by what you actually like about Merlot first.
Which part of Merlot do you actually like?
Before you pick a substitute, it helps to name the thing you would miss. Merlot does four jobs at once, and no other grape does all four. Pick the one you would protect, and the choice gets much easier.
| What you like about Merlot | Closest swap | What you keep | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The plush, soft texture | Carmenere | Black plum, low grip, a rounded middle | A green or herbal note some people notice straight away |
| The dark fruit, and finding it anywhere | Malbec | Blackberry and plum, smooth, no sharp edges | Riper and a little more jammy in cheaper bottles |
| How easy it is to drink | Garnacha | Ripe fruit and a supple feel | Brighter and more energetic, sometimes warmer in alcohol |
| How well it goes with dinner | Montepulciano d'Abruzzo | Medium body, dark fruit, no homework required | More savory, less plush, better with food than on its own |
| That it feels grown up | Rioja Tempranillo | Smooth texture, medium body, restaurant confidence | Oak arrives as vanilla and toast, so the fruit is not the whole story |
| That it is not too heavy | Cabernet Franc | Moderate structure and a soft enough texture | More freshness, more lift, a leafy note in cooler styles |
What red wine is most similar to Merlot?
Carmenere is the closest match, and there is a good story behind why. For most of the twentieth century, Chilean growers believed the grape in their vineyards was Merlot. They called it Merlot selection, or Merlot Peumal after the Peumo Valley where a lot of it grew. It went into bottles labeled Chilean Merlot and nobody blinked.
Then in 1994 the French ampelographer Jean Boursiquot, a researcher at Montpellier's school of oenology, looked at those vines and identified them as Carmenere, an old Bordeaux variety that had all but disappeared in France. Chile's Department of Agriculture recognized it as a distinct variety in 1998.
So the closest wine to Merlot is not a matter of opinion here. An entire wine industry drank it as Merlot for decades, and the people drinking it were happy. In the glass you get black plum, a cocoa note, and the same soft landing Merlot gives you. What you also get is a gentle herbal edge, sometimes described as green pepper or dried herb, and that is the one thing to know before you buy. Some people love it and some notice nothing else.
Where it shows best is with hearty food. Grilled meat, stew, or anything off a barbecue gives the herbal side something to push against. A good bottle to look for is Marques de Casa Concha from Peumo, which is polished without being expensive to the point of being an occasion wine. The producer's page for Marques de Casa Concha Carmenere lists the vineyard detail.
What can I use instead of Merlot on a normal Tuesday?
Malbec is the answer almost every time. It is the substitute we reach for most often, not because it is the most interesting answer but because it is the one you can find. Malbec sits in grocery stores, in chain retailers, and on casual restaurant lists in a way most of the other grapes here do not.
What it keeps from Merlot is the important part. You get blackberry and plum rather than tart red fruit, a body that feels round instead of drying, and a finish that does not ask anything of you. If your reason for buying Merlot is that Cabernet Sauvignon feels a bit stern, Malbec is the move to make before you try Cabernet again.
The trade-off is that Malbec is not trying to be subtle. Cheaper bottles can read riper and jammier than a restrained Merlot, so if you like cool-climate Merlot with a bit of restraint, this will feel richer than your usual lane. For burgers, takeout, roast chicken or a random weeknight, that extra plushness usually helps. Alamos from Mendoza is the version that turns up most reliably in American stores, and the producer describes it on the Alamos Malbec page. If you want to go deeper on the grape, we compared it directly with the obvious alternative in Malbec vs Cabernet Sauvignon.
What if you want juicier rather than darker?
Garnacha is the sleeper pick on this list. It rarely gets recommended first, and it lands beautifully for people who want softness without heavy structure. Bodegas Borsao makes Tres Picos in Campo de Borja, and it is generous and juicy in a way that reads instantly as friendly. You get ripe fruit and a supple feel rather than a mouth-drying finish.
This is the one to remember for the restaurant menu problem. Wine lists push people toward the famous grapes even when those are the wrong fit, and if you are staring at a list wanting something in the Merlot zone, Garnacha saves you from ordering a wine that is firmer than you wanted. It works with pizza, burgers, roast chicken and pork without any thought.
Where it differs from Merlot is worth knowing. It runs brighter and more energetic rather than plush, the alcohol and ripeness can feel slightly more noticeable, and in some vintages the oak shows more than it would in a simple fruit-first Merlot. If your favorite part of Merlot is the soft middle and the easy finish, this is a smart move. If your favorite part is earthy restraint, Garnacha is more outgoing than you want. The winery detail is on the Bodegas Borsao Tres Picos page.
Which one is best with dinner?
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, and it is not close. Some nights the wine is the event and some nights it is the thing next to the food, and this grape is built for the second kind. It stays in a comfortable zone of dark fruit, medium body and a rounded shape that does not ask you to decode anything, then adds a savory edge that makes it more flexible at the table than Merlot usually is.
Tomato sauces, sausage pizza, roast chicken and baked pasta all make sense with it. Italian reds can feel like a confusing shelf, and this is one of the calmest bets on it. Masciarelli's Linea Classica is a reliable version, described on the Masciarelli Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Linea Classica page.
The honest limit is that if you are chasing the plushest, most velvety version of a Merlot substitute, some Montepulciano bottles land more savory than plush. The fruit is not always the whole story. For sipping with no food, Malbec feels more instantly cozy. For a meal, this is the smarter bottle, and our guide to food to pair with red wine goes further into why savory reds handle a table better.
What should you order when you want to look like you know what you are doing?
Order Rioja Tempranillo, and specifically a Reserva. If your Merlot habit is less about softness and more about wanting something polished and dependable, La Rioja Alta's Vina Alberdi Reserva is worth knowing by name. Rioja sounds more intimidating than it tastes, and this is the kind of bottle that proves the point.
Tempranillo from Rioja gives red and dark cherry fruit with mellow oak. In practice that means a smooth red that feels settled rather than loud, with fruit, oak and body in proportion. It is a safe order across a broad range of food, which is why it turns up on so many restaurant lists.
The oak is the thing to watch. If you love fruit-pure Merlot and want no vanilla or toast anywhere near it, Rioja will feel more styled than you like. If you want a red that feels polished and dinner-ready, it is a genuinely good move. Producer information is on the La Rioja Alta site.
Why do these wines all taste a bit like Merlot?
Part of the answer is family, and it is more literal than most wine writing lets on. Merlot's own parents are Cabernet Franc and an old Charentes grape called Magdeleine Noire des Charentes, a pedigree the Vitis International Variety Catalogue lists as confirmed by genetic markers. Cabernet Sauvignon has Cabernet Franc as a parent too, which makes Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon half-siblings rather than rivals.
That is why Cabernet Franc belongs on this list at all. It is not a wine that copies Merlot, it is the grape Merlot came from, and you can taste the resemblance from the other direction. Compared with Merlot you usually get a little more freshness and aromatic lift while the texture stays soft enough to feel welcoming. Cooler-climate versions bring a leafy or herbal note, so it sits closer to Carmenere than to Malbec on that axis. Lang and Reed in California make an approachable version, and the Lang and Reed site covers the range.
The rest of the answer is not genetics at all. Malbec, Garnacha, Montepulciano and Tempranillo are unrelated to Merlot, and they land near it because of ripeness and tannin rather than ancestry. That is the useful thing to take away. A wine feels like Merlot when the tannin stays soft, the fruit runs dark and ripe, and the acidity does not cut hard, and any grape can be made that way or not. Our explainer on wine tannins covers the mechanism if you want it.
Is Merlot sweeter than Cabernet Sauvignon?
Almost all Merlot and almost all Cabernet Sauvignon are dry wines, so neither is sweet in the technical sense of leftover sugar. What people mean when they say Merlot is sweeter is that it tastes rounder and softer, and that impression comes from two real differences rather than from sugar.
Merlot grapes have thinner skins and fewer tannins for their size, and they ripen up to two weeks earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon. Less tannin means less of the drying grip that reads as severe, and riper fruit reads as sweeter even when the sugar is gone. So the perception is accurate and the explanation is texture, not sweetness. We took this apart properly in Cabernet Sauvignon vs Merlot, and if the dry and sweet labels themselves are the confusing part, dry vs sweet wine explains what the words are supposed to mean.
Which of these can you actually find in an American store?
Malbec and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo are the two you can count on. Most grocery stores with a real wine aisle carry both, and chain retailers carry several versions of each. Garnacha is common but often shelved under Grenache, which is the French spelling of the same grape, so look in both places before deciding they do not have it.
Rioja is usually there and usually labeled by region rather than by grape, so you are looking for the word Rioja and then for Crianza or Reserva to tell you how long it aged. Carmenere is reliably stocked wherever Chilean wine gets shelf space, which in most American stores is a decent amount. Cabernet Franc is the hardest of the six to find as a single-grape bottle, and it is worth asking for rather than hunting, because a lot of stores keep one or two and file them oddly.
If you would rather not memorize any of this, Find Similar is the part of Sommy built for exactly this moment. You name the bottle you already like, and it works outward from that rather than asking you to describe your taste in wine words you may not use.
Questions people ask about wines similar to Merlot
What can I use instead of Merlot?
Carmenere is the closest in taste, Malbec is the easiest to find, and Garnacha is the friendliest if you want something juicier. For cooking rather than drinking, any dry red in the same weight works, so a cheap Montepulciano d'Abruzzo or Malbec will do the job a recipe asks of Merlot.
What red wine is most similar to Merlot?
Carmenere is the answer to that one. Chilean growers believed it was a clone of Merlot until Jean Boursiquot identified it as a separate variety in 1994, and Chile officially recognized it in 1998. It keeps the plush black plum and the soft finish, and it adds a herbal edge Merlot does not have.
Is Merlot sweeter or Cabernet?
Both of them are dry wines. Merlot tastes sweeter because it has fewer tannins and ripens earlier, which reads as roundness rather than sugar. If you want an actually sweet red, you are looking at a different category altogether.
Is Merlot the smoothest red wine?
It is one of the smoothest widely available reds, and that reputation is earned by its low tannin. It is not the only one. Garnacha, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and softer Pinot Noir can all drink as smoothly, and a cheap over-extracted Merlot can drink less smoothly than any of them.
Is Merlot considered a cheap wine?
No, though it is easy to find cheaply. Merlot covers the full range, from inexpensive supermarket bottles to the most expensive wines in Bordeaux, where the great estates of Pomerol and Saint-Emilion are Merlot-dominant. Price tracks where the grapes grew and how the wine was made, not the grape name on the label.
Why did people stop drinking Merlot?
Most drinkers never actually stopped buying it. Merlot sales in the United States did decline after the 2004 film Sideways, whose lead character rejects it in a line that became famous, and a study in Wine and Vines magazine tied the drop to the film. California plantings followed it down, from about 20,640 hectares in 2004 to 18,924 by 2010. It is still one of the most planted grapes in the world and the most widely planted grape in Bordeaux, so the wine never went anywhere. What went away was the conversation about it.
Which of these is closest if I only ever drink one bottle a month?
Malbec is the one to buy. It is the most available, the most consistent from bottle to bottle at the low end, and the least likely to surprise you in a way you did not want. Start there, and try Carmenere when you feel like a small experiment.
Where to start tonight
You do not need a perfect substitute for Merlot. You need a next choice that still feels like you, and there are several safe ones rather than a single right one.
If you want the closest thing in the glass, buy Carmenere. If you want the easiest bottle to actually get hold of, buy Malbec. If you want juicy and crowd-friendly, buy Garnacha. If dinner matters more than the wine, buy Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. If you want something that feels polished, buy Rioja. If you want a little more freshness and lift, ask for Cabernet Franc.
None of that requires expert knowledge, and none of it commits you to anything. Merlot sits inside a broad family of soft, dark-fruited dry reds, which is exactly why stepping out of it is easier than it feels while you are standing in the aisle. If your next bottle turns out not to be the one, you have five more names and a reason for each.
