Josh Cellars Merlot California Red Wine

17 ratings put this Merlot at 4.41 out of five, a score for how shoppers received it and not for the style in the bottle. The grape itself comes first. Regional guides treat Merlot as generally earlier-ripening than Cabernet Sauvignon: often rounder in structure, with less forceful tannin in many examples, and leaning on plum and other dark fruit, whether it fills a glass on its own or smooths a Cabernet-led blend. Those guides add that climate and blending can swing it from fresh and medium-bodied to broad and rich, so the word covers a wide range of styles, not one fixed taste.

The name does not narrow it down: the origin reads California and nothing smaller, no county or valley named, and the winemaking is left unstated, so that wide range is as close as the name takes a shopper. Priced $14.99 to $24.99 in our September 2026 checks, its low end sat in the lower half of the reds we track; its 4.41 average, for what a crowd score is worth, lands below the 4.71 median of the rated wines we track. If you want a narrower read before buying, look for a region named tighter than the state.

The name, at least, comes with a plain story the maker tells directly. Josh Cellars says its founder, Joseph Carr, built the brand in 2007 and named it for his own father, Josh.

Our call: the founder's tribute story gives this label a named person behind it, and it suits a shopper who wants a Merlot from the less expensive stretch of the reds we track. For the shopper who ranks by score it is a pass, because the shopper average sits under the middle of the rated wines we cover and the story the producer tells on its website does not move that number.

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