Nice Wine for Grillin'

[Carl Eppig]

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 on the grill. We have three more bottles to give that a try, and wish we had bought more at the time.

[Bob Parsons Alberta]

Carl, which seasonings/sauces did you apply to the steak? We have to educate those BBQ addicts down south that smother their steak in all sorts of un-savoury items.

[Carl Eppig]

Salt & pepper; mesquite smoke, and a pat of butter on top during final minutes. They were fillet steaks, and we never sauce them.

[David M. Bueker]

50 acres of vines to hail? Ouch!

[Carl Eppig]

According to Gene they were completely destroyed; but he didn't tell which varieties. I saw him putting in about twenty acres of Chardonnay (cuttings from Weimer) a couple of years ago, so they would be young and vulnerable.