West Valley Wine Group

Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: Cabernet Franc

Thu, Aug 13 · 5:30 PM MST

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Cabernet Franc is a black-skinned French wine grape variety grown in most wine producing nations. The variety is most famously known as a key red grape in the Loire Valley and as the third grape of Bordeaux. It can be found in many of the world's top Bordeaux blend wines.

As a varietal wine, Cabernet Franc is delicate and aromatic – particularly in its youth. It shares many of the same attributes of Cabernet Sauvignon, but is distinct by its pronounced green, vegetal note that can range from leafy and garrigue to green bell pepper. In cooler viticultural regions, the variety exhibits graphite and red licorice notes with warmer climates showing more cigar and leather aromas. As an icewine, Cabernet Franc produces intense aromas and flavors of strawberry. When blended with other varieties, it adds herbaceous accents of tobacco and dark spice as well as contributing a smoother and rounder mouthfeel.

Cabernet Franc's home is widely accepted as Libournais in Bordeaux, but thanks to its hardiness in the vineyard, it has travelled to a majority of regions around the world. France is the leading country with over 30,000 hectares (74,130 acres) of the variety reported in 2016 with Brazil, Italy and the United States also having significant hectares reported. It is also an important variety for the viticultural industries of Brazil, Uruguay, Israel and Hungary.

The variety prefers cool, inland climates such as the Loire Valley. The appellations of Chinon (in Touraine) along with Saumur and Saumur-Champigny (in Anjou) are important bastions of varietal Cabernet Franc wines. The wines are prized for their aromas of ripe berry and sweet spices. Top examples can also be found in the Anjou Villages appellation, and in Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas de Bourgeil in Touraine.

In Canada, Cabernet Franc is produced as a dry red wine, but more commonly blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It is an important variety for the production of icewine in Ontario and is also found planted in Canada's warmest grape growing region of Pelee Island. Further south, in the United States, it is grown in the Napa and Sonoma counties of California. It is favored by vignerons in Long Island and Finger Lakes as well as multiple other cool climate viticultural regions, valued for its ability to ripen reliably. In Argentina the variety has long featured – albeit on a smaller scale – alongside other Bordeaux varieties. As of 2017 it accounted for less than one percent of the red grapes grown here. However, this still means there were 1042 ha (2577 acres).
Chile has over 1200ha (2965 acres) planted, though here it is less common as a single varietal wine.

We have a choice of videos to watch including:

1. https://youtu.be/W8XnGrOx6eI?si=Zad5SKHgmBO4QQTI - Cabernet Franc (Everything you need to know) - Wine Folly (6:26)
2. https://youtu.be/J82vUMHVXu4?si=xWwVfF-Ek8hyObWP - Let’s Be Frank about CABERNET FRANC - No Sediment (6:49)
3. https://youtu.be/kKZ3ptGNKWY?si=_8LgHJp_qmREuHho - New World vs Old World Cabernet Franc - Wine Folly (6:31)

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So, pick up a bottle and watch a couple of videos. Let us know what you’re drinking and eating, and, if possible, the region from which your wine comes. Do you have any comments (positive or negative) about the videos? And, as always, tell us what’s going on in your life - what's happening with you, how you're feeling about things, updates, successes, challenges - as much or as little as you’re willing to disclose. We are in this together. And - thank goodness - we have wine!

Cheers!!

Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: Sauvignon Blanc

Thu, Aug 20 · 5:30 PM MST

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Sauvignon Blanc is a white wine grape from western France, now successfully grown in emerging and established wine regions all over the world. The variety produces lightly colored, aromatic dry white wines with fresh acidity.

The key selling point of Sauvignon Blanc is its straightforwardness – the flavors are rarely hidden away in the background. Also, there is a particularly close correlation between the perceived flavors and their descriptors, making Sauvignon Blanc an ideal wine with which to begin wine-tasting lessons. Wines are generally quite clear and bright, although more aged examples may develop more of a golden hue.

Classic Sauvignon Blanc aromas range from grass, nettles and asparagus to green apples and gooseberries, and to more esoteric notes such as blackcurrant leaf and gunflint. The latter is a sign of a wine from Pouilly-Fumé. In New World regions and warmer climates, aromas can push into more tropical areas, and include grapefruit, mango and carambola (star fruit). Thiols (such as 4-methyl-4-mercaptopentan-2-one, or 4-MMP) and methoxpyrazines (associated with green, bell pepper notes) are generally credited with giving Sauvignon Blanc its somewhat unique green, grassy, aromas, especially in Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

Sauvignon Blanc produces wines with a light to medium body and high acid levels with moderate alcohol. It is generally held that producers wishing to increase complexity will need to do work in the vineyard to restrict yields and, alongside this, lees stirring (bâttonage) may give additional body to the wines. In more commercial, early-release examples, the high, lingering acidity is often counterbalanced by low to moderate levels of residual sugar.

### Suggested food pairings

• Broad Bean & Chèvre Salad
• Grilled Asparagus with Hollandaise
• Bluff Oysters with Dill & Lime Vinaigrette

We have a choice of videos to watch including:

1. https://youtu.be/2Qp0KLkAxQE?si=OHz-cbOw2GlBRWtl - Fine White Wine: Sauvignon Blanc-Sémillon - Wine Folly (9:55)
2. https://youtu.be/tHqxFMWKiF4?si=S3zLIyZkOL6E-4pY - Wine Grapes 101: SAUVIGNON BLANC - No Sediment (4:43)
3. https://youtu.be/JhmY3S9A0GY?si=Od2FA6zA6zKMitct - Advanced Guide to Sauvignon Blanc For WSET Level 3 and 4 - Wine with Jimmy (12:29)

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So, pick up a bottle and watch a couple of videos. Let us know what you’re drinking and eating, and, if possible, the region from which your wine comes. Do you have any comments (positive or negative) about the videos? And, as always, tell us what’s going on in your life - what's happening with you, how you're feeling about things, updates, successes, challenges - as much or as little as you’re willing to disclose. We are in this together. And - thank goodness - we have wine!

Cheers!!

Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: It's Cocktail Week - the Manhattan

Thu, Aug 27 · 5:30 PM MST

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Online

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A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred with ice then strained into a chilled cocktail glass and garnished traditionally with a maraschino cherry. A Manhattan may also be served in a champagne coupe or on the rocks in a lowball glass.

The whiskey-based Manhattan is one of five cocktails named for a New York City borough. It is closely related to the Brooklyn cocktail, which uses dry vermouth and Maraschino liqueur in place of the Manhattan's sweet vermouth, and Amer Picon in place of the Manhattan's angostura bitters.

Some of the earliest records of the cocktail can be found in Charlie Paul's American and other Drinks and O.H. Byron's The Modern Bartender's Guide, both written in 1884. Paul describes it containing "three or four drops of angostura bitters, ditto of plain syrup; add half a liqueur glass of vermouth, half wine glassful of Scotch whiskey" and garnished with lemon. Byron describes two versions, one with French vermouth and the other with Italian. Another early record of the cocktail can be found in William Schmidt's The Flowing Bowl, published in 1891. In it, he details a drink containing 2 dashes of gum (gomme syrup), 2 dashes of bitters, 1 dash of absinthe, 2⁄3 portion of whiskey, and 1⁄3 portion of vermouth.

The following are other variations on the classic Manhattan:

• Black Manhattan – replaces vermouth with Averna amaro, add one dash orange bitters (in addition to one dash Angostura bitters). Created in 2005 at San Francisco bar Bourbon & Branch by bartender Todd Smith.
• Blonde Manhattan – made with 2 oz moonshine, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 0.5 oz orange liqueur, and 3 dashes of orange bitters.
• Brandy Manhattan – made with brandy instead of whiskey, and is very popular in Wisconsin.
• Cuban Manhattan – a perfect Manhattan (see below) with dark rum as its principal ingredient.
• Dean Lyder – a twist on the perfect Manhattan, made with orange bitters and zest, giving it a 'big, bold character'. It is named for Courtney Lyder, dean of UCLA School of Nursing.
• Dry Manhattan – made with dry vermouth instead of sweet vermouth, usually also replacing the maraschino cherry with a twist in keeping with the overall principle of reducing the cocktail's sweetness. A Manhattan made with dry vermouth but retaining the cherry rather than twist is sometimes known as a "half-dry Manhattan", but this name risks confusion with the perfect Manhattan, whose quantity of vermouth consists of equal parts sweet vermouth and dry vermouth.
• Fanciulli – adds the bitter flavors of Fernet-Branca.
• Tipperary - uses Irish Whiskey in place of Rye whiskey, and add Green Chartreuse.
• The Fourth Regiment – a classic (ca. 1889) cocktail that uses a 1:1 ratio of whiskey and vermouth, and uses three dashes of three different bitters – orange bitters, celery bitters, and Peychaud's Bitters.
• Metropolitan – similar to a brandy Manhattan, but with a 3-to-1 ratio of brandy to vermouth and a dash of simple syrup.
• Perfect Manhattan – made with equal parts sweet and dry vermouth.
• Rob Roy – made with Scotch whisky.
• Manhattan Project - to a standard Manhattan, add ½ oz cherry brandy.

We have a choice of videos to watch including:

1. https://youtu.be/eWESf1b317Y?si=_k_c3bEoUVjfxZ1Y - How to Make a Manhattan: a simple classic cocktail recipe - Anders Erickson (6:18)
2. https://youtu.be/vlnbAwlusHM?si=bNeG99wPW98c-UjL - My 3 favorite MANHATTAN riffs right now! - Anders (8:08)
3. https://youtu.be/YWKJsv8PymI?si=cLTeEBm7LLnhYC09 - The Black Manhattan: classic meets contemporary - Anders (6:12)

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So, mix up a cocktail and watch a couple of videos. Let us know what you’re drinking and eating. Do you have any comments (positive or negative) about the videos? And, as always, tell us what’s going on in your life - what's happening with you, how you're feeling about things, updates, successes, challenges - as much or as little as you’re willing to disclose. We are in this together. And - thank goodness - we have wine!

Cheers!!