*Northwest Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc
Back in 2000, the new big thing in NW wine was Syrah. Very little planted, very few producers, Doug McCrea was the best producer, with L'Ecole's extremely limited production Syrah right behind. That all changed with the arrival of Christophe, the mad Frenchman, a couple of hot magazine articles about Cayuse, and the realization that, if you are starting a new winery in Walla Walla, with about a hundred other startups in town, you'd better have a hook- why not Syrah? Flash forward to today, lots of NW Syrahs, lots of Syrah vines planted and producing, a not very nice article in NY Times about the one-dimensionality of Washington Syrah, and a lot of very pleasant, juicy, black cherry flavored big red wine that could be easily mistaken for any of several other red wine varietals. At prices ranging from a reasonable $20 to a mind boggling $85, NW Syrah is everywhere. So if you want to be the "next big thing" what's a winery to do? Answer? Cabernet Franc. Yes, that blending grape of notorious "green" flavors and hints of pencil lead is the new Syrah. And there are some dang good ones too. And a lot of wanna bes.
Cabernet Franc is pretty miserable if it's not allowed to ripen, and if the grower leaves a lot of grapes on the vine (more than 2-3 tons/acre), the grapes are best used in a blended red to add color. They won't add much more. But if a grower crops the Cabernet Franc vineyard down to 1-2 tons/acre, and the grapes are allowed to get completely physiologically ripe, well, there's a different kettle of fish. Avalon's Northwest Big Reds Club featured two Cabernet Francs in our December 2005 Club shipment. You can read the December Club newsletter here. The Best Cabernet Francs from the NW In a few years, Cab Franc may become as ubiquitous as Syrah is, but for now, there are a few "wired" wineries offering Cab Franc who are generating discussion (and controversy). David O'Reilly, of Owen Roe, Sharecroppers, and O'Reilly's fame, is always out there looking for good vines, a new vineyard he can work with, and he's expanded his Washington State vineyard contracts to include some older vine Cabernet Franc from the Yakima area. His Owen Roe Cabernet Franc 04 $32.96/$35.95 is sourced from West Yakima's Rosa Mystica Vineyard and a new vineyard he's discovered, Slide Mountain Vineyard. It was a hit at his Thanksgiving open house and the nose was the focus. The wine is "all about fragrance" as David says. Whether it will age well is a big question, but for drinking over the next year, it's pretty satisfying. Andrew Rich of Andrew Rich Wines made a Cab Franc in 2002 that was not up to snuff- it had a bit of spritz and the flavors were not as full as you'd like. He obviously learned from his first CF, because his new Andrew Rich Cabernet Franc 03 $17.95/$19.95 rocks. It has the scent thing going for it, as well as full body and concentration of flavor. And as he usually does, he's priced the wine very reasonably. Fielding
Hills, up in
Wenatchee, WA, made a Cabernet Franc for the first time in 2003 and it's
just out. If you've followed Avalon for awhile, you know that I fell
in love with this winery's reds from their debut, when they made their
first 100 or so cases, released in 2003. Who would'a thunk that an apple
grower, with a young vineyard down by the river, would make rich and
complex reds from the get go?
Owen Sullivan (O-S Winery), that garagiste winery with the "never too intense" motto, makes a Cabernet Franc. Bill Owen finagled some Cab Franc grapes from Champoux Vineyard and made a wine from the monster burly voluptuous school of winemaking. The Owen Sullivan Cabernet Franc 03 $26.99/$29.99 offers some black currant and dark chocolate notes that differentiate it from the other Cab Francs. This wine is a big star at our store, with customers coming from as far as Alaska to get this wine. One thing I know, I'm not going to age these Cab Francs for long without trying them. I just don't know if they'll hold up to time, and even if they do, will they be better, or do they peak when young? Cab Francs from the Loire, where they've worked with the grape for centuries, are not usually considered wines to treasure and age, but more "house wines" for people's own houses. Cab Francs of the Pacific Northwest? We shall see.
About Cabernet Franc
The differences between franc and sauvignon become apparent when grown and fermented in close proximity. Cabernet franc vines bear thinner-skinned, earlier-ripening grapes with lower overall acidity, when compared to cabernet sauvignon. Yields are similar, although cabernet franc normally buds and ripens somewhat earlier. Consequently vineyards in climates where rain is a harvest-time threat often plant this grape, rather than or in addition to cabernet sauvignon. Cabernet franc vines survive cold winters better than cabernet sauvignon, but are more susceptible to being damaged by Spring frosts. France has by far the most cabernet franc plantings of any wine producing nation with over 35,000 acres. There are significant plantings of cabernet franc in St. Emilion, the Loire Valley (where it is known as Breton), and south west France (aka Bouchy). There are cabernet franc vineyards in Romania, Hungary, the Balkans, and the Friuli region of north eastern Italy (aka cabernet frank). New plantings in the 1990s in Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina show promise. In the United States, cabernet franc is planted in Long Island, New York, in Oregon and in Washington state. Depending a great deal on vineyard practices, the flavor profile of Cabernet Franc may be both fruitier and sometimes more herbal or vegetative than Cabernet Sauvignon, although lighter in both color and tannins. Over-cropping and underexposure each tend to accentuate the vegetative flavor elements. Typically somewhat spicy in aroma and often reminiscent of plums and especially violets, Cabernet Franc is more often used as a secondary or tertiary element in varietally-blended red wines, such as Bordeaux or Meritage, instead of as a stand-alone varietal bottling.
Jim LaMar is editor of Professional Friends of Wine, instructs Introductory Sensory Evaluation of Wine at California State University, Fresno, and has been drinking, thinking, teaching and writing about wine for 30 years. He is a member of Professional Friends of Wine. |
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Cabernet
Franc is, without question, the new hot varietal in the Pacific Northwest.
As Syrah has become ubiquitous (and NW Syrah was panned as overly simple
in the NY Times last year), wineries are looking for something new to
differentiate themselves from the competition.
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