Merlara is a DOC of the Veneto wine region in north-eastern Italy. It covers a wide portfolio of wines including rosso and bianco (red and white) blends, semi-sparkling frizzante wines and a number of varietals based on both local and more international grape varieties. The Merlara catchment area is centered around the town of that name, located 30 miles (50km) south-east of Verona. It sits on the northern side of the Adige river, which flows west-east across the plains here, en route to the Adriatic Sea.
The wines come from vineyards in the south-western corner of the Padova (Padua) province and the south-eastern corner of the Verona province. In the Padova province, the Merlara catchment area covers the communes of Masi, Castelbaldo, Urbana, Casale di Scodosia and Merlara itself. Just to the west, in the Verona province, it takes in the communes of Terrazzo, Bevilacqua and Boschi Sant'Anna, right up to the banks of the Adige. This is one of Veneto's most southerly viticultural areas.
The Merlara DOC was created in the warm summer of 2000, amid a flurry of administrative activity by Veneto's wine authorities; the Arcole and Vicenza DOCs were also both created in September that year and a number of other DOC and DOCG titles underwent revisions. Merlara joins an ever-increasing list of Italian DOCs which act more as GIs (Geographical Indications) than appellations in the traditional, original (French) sense. While there are legally backed production restrictions and regulations imposed by this type of DOC, the breadth of styles they produce removes any sense of tradition which might be associated with the area's wine. This is not necessarily a bad thing: although it dilutes the intrinsic meaning of the DOC name, it also grants local winemakers greater freedom to produce the wines they want to, giving consumers a choice of variety-based expressions of the local terroir.
Merlara's varietal wines are white (Tai, Chardonnay, Pinots Grigio and Bianco, and Riesling) and red (Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet, Raboso, Marzemino and Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso), and also come in frizzante form in the case of Chardonnay and Marzemino. Merlara Bianco also comes in still and sparkling forms, and is based on white Tai (formerly known as Tocai Friulano) grapes, which must constitute 50–70% of the final blend. Its red counterpart, Merlara Rosso, is based on similar proportions of Merlot, creating a bianco/rosso pairing identical to that of Lison-Pramaggiore in Veneto's north-eastern corner.
