I have tasted several hundred Merlots from the United States in the past 12 months that cannot qualitatively compete with this wine - and they cost 2-4 times more! This ruby/garnet colored wine offers sweet red and black fruit aromas and a precise, well-made, clean, medium-bodied, and fresh core of candied cherries and blackberries. This easy-going, fruit-filled, uncomplicated, and pure wine offers an extraordinary value for Merlot fanatics.Georges Duboeuf loves the 1997 vintage in Beaujolais ("the wine is fat, round, and filled with tender fruit and elegance"). An extremely hot August was followed by a September of warm days and cool nights ("it was the finest September of my career") fashioning a fruit driven wine that has relatively low acidity levels - particularly when compared to the 1996s. Duboeuf believes, and I agree, that the 1997 is a wine that will be at its best early.In the past, the wine press has written that Duboeuf's use of an artificial yeast (71B) accounted for his signature style. In a conversation with him this year, I learned that he abandoned that strain of yeast after the 1990 vintage. Presently, a variety of yeasts, both indigenous and artificial, are used for fermentation. To Duboeuf, the key factor in the vinification of Beaujolais is temperature control, not yeasts.The high temperatures and the grapes' low acidity levels at harvest in 1997 demanded, in Duboeuf's opinion, extremely close attention. Rot, mildew and oidium were not problems (he says none existed), but warm, low acid environments encourage the unwarranted proliferation of bacteria, so Duboeuf had the grapes and musts cooled as soon as possible. To prevent the potential onset of ethyl acetate, he had eight filtration teams going from estate to estate with the necessary equipment to filter the wines as soon as malos were completed (the wines were later fined and filtered again prior to bottling).Duboeuf informed me that the world-wide rise in wine prices did not go unnoticed by vignerons in Beaujolais. Consumers should brace themselves for a 25-30% increase with the 1998 vintage.Importers William Deutsch and Sons, Ltd., Armonk, NY; tel (914) 273-1221; fax (914) 273-1291, and Winesellers Ltd., Skokie, IL; tel (847) 679-0121; fax (847) 679-2017. (Reviewed by P. A. Rovani)