Knightor Winery Merlot Cabernet 2020

This truly unique Cornish wine is a cheat wine in many ways! Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon cannot currently ripen in Britain as they simply ripen too late, so the grapes for this wine are grown under glass. The blend is 60% Merlot, 40% Cabernet. The grapes are fermented with daily pump overs to extract more colour, depth and body. Towards the end of the fermentation the grapes are pressed and transferred to a mixture of French oak barrels where they remain for over a year. The wine is then bottled unfined and unfiltered. Only two barrels of this wine were made in 2020.

This wine is a deep ruby in colour, with aromas of dark berries, pepper and spices, The palate is medium bodied with gentle tannins and a slight earthiness, yielding flavours of cherry, blackberry and spice.

Knightor make premium quality, limited production English wines from grapes grown in English vineyards and their own vines at Portscatho and Seaton on the south Cornish coast.