Barefoot Cellars Merlot California Red Wine

"What do I open when the table can't agree?" As a grape, Merlot generally ripens earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon and often comes out rounder, and regional guides describe plum and other red or dark fruit in it, with less forceful tannin than Cabernet in many bottles. Climate and blending can leave it fresh and medium-bodied or fuller and richer. This one is from California, and in our September 2026 checks its low and high came to $6.99 and $12.99, among the least expensive reds we track.

So far it has drawn 1 rating. The average is 5 out of five.

Barefoot's own page for this Merlot describes it as “rich and lush,” with “alluring flavors of boysenberry and split cherries followed by hints of silky chocolate for a decadent finish,” the producer's words. Barefoot's brand history traces the company to 1965, when Davis Bynum made the first Barefoot wine in Albany, California; it became Barefoot Cellars in 1986, and Jennifer Wall has been its winemaker since 1995. E. & J. Gallo Winery bought the brand in 2005. What Barefoot's Merlot page itself still does not publish is an alcohol level, a grape percentage, or any growing region more specific than the company's Modesto, California headquarters.

Our call: pour it if a rounder, lower-tannin red for a table that cannot agree on a big Cabernet is what you are after; 1 shopper so far has rated it 5 out of five, and the price sits among the least expensive reds we track. Pass if you want more grip or a stated region behind the fruit; Barefoot names only Modesto as its home, and this stays a crowd-pleaser rather than a place-driven wine.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.