What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Longer. Weightier. More tannic. Merlot is a hard grape to grow. You don’t bank on its survival. But when it survives, it thrives; a triumph over adversity. And all that focus. All that grizzled determination to see out the frosts and the pecks of blackbirds, is now channelled into a grape. And in that grape is density, darkness, and length.