Decoy Merlot

Decoy is a brand name, not a description of what is in the bottle, though it does sit on a longer history. Decoy says the brand was established in 1985 and became a stand-alone winery in 2008. The wine itself is a Merlot from California.

Merlot, the grape, can make a complete wine on its own or soften a Cabernet-led blend, and regional guides describe plum and other dark fruit, with less forceful tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon in many examples. In our September 2026 checks, it was priced from $21.99 to $29.99, and we do not have a shopper rating for this bottle. Standing at the shelf, the question is whether you want the rounder, gentler style those guides tie to Merlot, or the firmer grip they attribute to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Decoy's own listing for the current 2023 release describes vibrant aromas of fresh black cherry, ripe boysenberry, leather, black olive, peppercorn and sweet baking spices, with what the producer calls opulent fruit and silky tannins on the palate, finishing on cherry and spice. Decoy also reprints a Wine Enthusiast score on its own site, but it belongs to an earlier bottling: the reviewer gave the 2014 Sonoma County Merlot 90 points in March 2017, describing the juicy, rounded layering of dark cherry, dried herb and cedar within a light-bodied, mellowed context of balanced acidity and fruit, the critic's words for that older vintage, not the wine on shelves now.

Our call: buy it if the dark cherry, boysenberry and baking-spice profile Decoy's own note describes, Merlot's usual rounder, gentler style, is what you are after. Pass if you want a shopper rating or a current-vintage score behind that description; no shopper rating has reached our record for this bottle, and the one professional score Decoy reprints on its own site covers a Merlot from nearly a decade earlier.

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