The King Family Vineyards 2007 Meritage has won the coveted 2010 Virginia Governor's Cup award for red wine.

Selected from more than 200 entries representing all of the appellations in the Commonwealth, King Family Vineyards 2007 Meritage is a blend of 56% Merlot, 20% Petit Verdot, 16% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Malbec.

King Family Vineyards 2007 Meritage Tasting Notes/Background; The wine was aged in French oak for 18 months. There are dark fruits, especially black cherry and raisin, on the nose with a hint of toast. Full mouth of black cherry, smoke and clove. Perfect structure with firm, balanced tannins. The finish is smooth and lingering. It is recommended that you drink this wine now through 2015. A total of 615 cases were produced. The 2010 Governor's Cup winner also won a gold medal at the 2009 Monticello Cup. The grapes were hand-harvested, hand sorted, then de-stemmed without crushing (whole berry). Fermentation vessels were a combination of open-top stainless steel tanks and fermentation bins. The lots were kept separate. Punch-downs and gentle pump-overs were done during fermentation to extract color, tannins, and structure. Different yeast strains were used for each batch to start alcoholic fermentation, to increase the wine's complexity. Many lots underwent an extended maceration to increase mid-palate body, after which the lots were transferred to French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation and aging. The final blend was determined through exhaustive tastings, trial blends and individual barrel selection prior to the first racking in June 2008. After eighteen months in barrel, the wine was fined with egg whites just before bottling. No filtering was done in order to maintain the complexity and life of the wine and increase the aging potential.