'07 Knapp Estate Bottled Merlot

[Innkeeper]

2007 Knapp, Estate Bottled, Cayuga Lake, Merlot ($14.95 at winery). Alcohol level: 12%! This is the first Merlot that we’ve received from Knapp that didn’t carry the New York AVA. Hopefully the ’08 will be estate bottled too, but they lost 50 acres of vines this year in a hail storm, and I don’t know if that included their Merlot plantings. It is not on their website right now, but you can get it by directly contacting them.

This wine if much darker and richer than previous bottlings, but is still very low in alcohol. In addition to the Merlot plum ness there were other red and black fruits on the nose and tongue tip. There was even more fruit in complex middle that included a hint of oak and chewy tannin. It was very well balanced. The finish lingered on and on.

We matched it with grilled fillet steaks, expecting the wine to be the lighter version. The wine would have gone better with nice thick rib eyes or sirloin steak. We have three more bottles to give that a try, and wish we had bought more at the time.