Meritaahhj is not a word

Whenever I give wine lectures or, whenever I can casually throw it into a conversation without looking like a total geek or snob, I love to talk about the word Meritaahhhj. The way it rolls off the tongue. The way it sounds so Parisian, so elegant. The fact that it's an American word and isn't pronounced Meritaahhj at all.
 This is the point in my education series where I usually make everyone raise their right hand and promise, no swear, to me that they will never say Meritaahhhj again. The word actually rhymes with Heritage. Meritage. See?
Now,this is where the story gets funny. You see, back in the day when Napa was just getting started, our founding fathers were hard at work creating red wines blended from grapes that hailed originally from Bordeaux. Grapes that made up the big five were Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec. These were, and are, the grapes that go into some of the most prestigious and expensive bottles of wine in the world. These are the grapes of Bordeaux, thus we, here in Napa, were obviously making "Bordeaux blends". The strange thing is Bordeaux (which, just for the record is a place in France) was a little upset that we were using the name of their town to market our wines. After all, they weren't making Napa Cabs so how could we be making Bordeaux blends??
So the task was upon us to create a word that would symbolize what these wines were. Wines that were inspired by French heritage yet, had merit in their own right. Wines that were every bit as good as their French counterpart and utilized the same grapes, yet couldn't be associated with France. Hmmmm. Wines that have merit and reflect their heritage. Hmmmm.
Now what's really funny about this is the whole reason we had to come up with this new verbiage was because we were no longer allowed to make it sound "French" yet the first thing we want to do is make the word Meritage, Meritaahhhj. Oui n'est-ce pas?
From this moment on you will promise me that you will never utter the word Meritaahhj again... Je comprends?
Bon.