Camaraderie Cellars Cabernet Franc 04
Big price reduction from $30! More pleasant green tones than the 03 but equally bright with raspberries and red notes. Depth of color, flavor, mouth feel; raspberries, not black berries, high palate tones, not plums and cherries - these are marks of Cabernet Franc at its best and beautifully expressed in this vintage.
Try this Cabernet Franc with salmon sometime. We find it complements salmon almost anyway you fix it - blackened, poached, baked, or barbequed.
MORE INFORMATION
Previous vintage tasting notes
From the winery: "Cabernet Franc, speaking "francly", is no weak cousin to Cabernet Sauvignon, at least not in Washington State. If anything, this wine is what often makes a "Cabernet" a better wine in a blend. At its best, Cabernet Franc possesses a liveliness that an honest but more staid Cabernet Sauvignon can only envy.
Our 2000 example is from Fred Artz' and Eve and Ed Shaw's vineyards on Red Mountain. Red Mountain, the newest of the American Viticultural Areas, this wine showcases some of the reasons that both Red Mountain and Cabernet Franc are beginning to turn heads. Neither have to take second places to any wine growing area or wine. Depth of color, flavor, mouth feel; raspberries, not black berries, high palate tones, not plums and cherries ? these are marks of Cabernet Franc for this vintage.
Wine maker comments include many "wow's" and deep hum's, bordering on hymns of thanks to vineyardists who are as proud of their fruit as the winemaker is of the wine. Technically speaking, the wine was fermented on several yeasts and barreled in mostly reasonably new to neutral oak. Lighlty fined, the wine has just a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to blend. We can't help but think the Bordeaux family of grapes is either smiling or wrinkling their brows over the turnabout. Cabernet Franc is finally able to take center stage, supported by its more well-known cousins. It's about time. Enjoy !!!
Camaraderie Cellars is a craft winery that produces somewhere between 2,000 cases and 3,000 cases, depending on what vintage is being counted and the cogency of the winemaker counting. All of them are much loved and celebrated and meant to be shared. Come visit us at the winery on the North Olympic Peninsula. We are the most Northwest of all wineries in the lower 48, but our passion (some say we're just plain nuts), for winemaking places us at the philosophic center of the growing and equally passionate Washington wine industry.
