The wine that wine geeks love to hate. The wine that famously was drunk out of a spit bucket in the movie “Sideways.” The wine that new research shows “has the single largest consumer base of any varietal wine in the U.S. and … is the one most closely associated with high quality at an affordable price.”

Yes, merlot, that much-abused, rarely defended all-purpose red wine. In a detailed report released this month from Blackstone Winery and The Nielsen Co., merlot turns out to be the most-purchased wine variety – red or white – in the country.

In Washington, it remains the fourth most widely-grown grape, behind chardonnay, riesling and cabernet sauvignon.

More important, merlot in Washington is a different breed of critter than merlot from almost anywhere else. In order to be labeled merlot, a wine need only be 75 percent merlot. The rest can be anything.

In the cheaper (under $15) bottles from California, it is not unusual to find a high percentage of other grapes to add color, tannin and substance to what is often a rather thin, wimpy wine on its own.

But in Washington, merlot doesn’t need that kind of support. It ripens so well here, many winemakers have told me that they reverse the usual blending procedure – adding merlot to their cabernet to beef it up, rather than vice-versa.