Merlot Mysteries

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"Merlot Mysteries"
Season	11
Episode	1102
Airdate	October 2, 2017
Writer	Peter Mitchell and Simon McNabb
Director	Don McCutcheon
Guests	Maurice Dean Wint as Raymond Hatch Toni Ellwand as Fabiana Firenzo Christopher Stanton as Baron Trotter Jean-Michel Le Gal as Jean-Michel Larouche Coutre III Tony DeSantis as Paolo Firenzo
Previous	Up From Ashes
Next	8 Footsteps

"Merlot Murdoch" is the second episode of eleventh season and the one hundred fifty-second of the Murdoch Mysteries series. It first aired on October 2, 2017.

Summary

When a wine connoisseur and the father of the groom drinks poisoned wine during his toast to the wedding couple, Murdoch and Watts investigate Toronto's community of wine lovers.

Meanwhile, finished with her schooling, Rebecca James looks for a new job.

Murdoch and Watts uncork fraud and a fledgling industry.

Character Revelations

• Detective Watts instructs the teetotaler Murdoch on the art of wine tasting, in the name of science, of course.
• Rebecca James leaves the City Morgue to begin her own practice in Chatham with Nate Desmond.

Continuity

• Dr. Ogden and Miss James are on first-name basis since Up From Ashes.
• Murdoch gets drunk on wine; first time was on absinthe in The Green Muse.
• Once again, Crabtree gets background information at the City Records.
• Brackenreid shares his recipe to cure the hangover: tomato juice, raw egg and hot sauce.
• The spectroscope returns to determine the age of the wine; first time used in Concocting A Killer.
• Murdoch's envisioning a crime scene takes on a new dimension when searching for the Angolino vineyard.

Historical References

• The native North American grape (Vitis labrusca), commonly known as the fox grape, grows wild in the Northeast, Canada and along the East Coast. In contrast to the European wine grapes, its "slip-skin" allows the skin of the grape berries to easily slip off when squeezed. It is the source of many grape cultivars, including the one in question, Catawba.
• Rebecca James has cousins living in Chatham, where a good doctor is needed. During the 19th century, the Chatham area was part of the Underground Railroad, Chatham-Kent is now part of the African-Canadian Heritage Tour. Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site is a museum of the Dawn Settlement, established in 1841 by Josiah Henson near Dresden as refuge for the many slaves who escaped to Canada from the United States. John Brown, the abolitionist, planned his raid on the Harpers Ferry Virginia Arsenal in Chatham and recruited local men to participate in the raid.

Trivia

• Cameo appearance by Donald Ziraldo, renowned winemaker and co-founder of Inniskillin Wines.
• Actor Maurice Dean Wint made his first appearance on Murdoch Mysteries in Mild Mild West.
• Actor Tony DeSantis made his first appearance on Murdoch Mysteries in as Pizza Man in Murdoch on the Corner.
• Actor Christopher Stanton makes his third appearance on Murdoch Mysteries; the first was in The Tesla Effect, followed by Winston's Lost Night.
• Actor Andrew Gillies was Robert Denman in Twentieth Century Murdoch.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as Constable George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Daniel Maslany as Detective Watts
Mouna Traoré as Rebecca James
Jordan Johnson-Hinds as Nate Desmond

Guest Cast

Maurice Dean Wint as Raymond Hatch
Toni Ellwand as Fabiana Firenzo
Christopher Stanton as Baron Trotter
Matthew Gouveia as Ricardo Firenzo
Tony DeSantis as Paolo Firenzo
Jean-Michel Le Gal as Jean-Michel Larouche Coutre III
Dom Fiore as Enrico Firenzo
Andrew Gillies as James Merchant
Gabriella De La Torre as Karina Firenzo
Gary Biggar as Hospital Administrator
Alia Desantis as Candidate One
Genna Giampaolo as Candidate Two

Gallery

Crime Scene

Investigating and learning about wines

Questioning the first suspect

Questioning a suspect about the murder weapon

Planning a future together, fulfilling a dream

Testing the evidence...

Brackenreid's cure for a hangover

At the Blackboard

Locating the old vineyard...

Murdoch envisioning the past...

Discovering the ole vineyard...

The wine label's secret uncovered

A fond farewell at the City Morgue