Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: Cabernet Franc
Details
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:
- https://youtu.be/W8XnGrOx6eI?si=Zad5SKHgmBO4QQTI - Cabernet Franc (Everything you need to know) - Wine Folly (6:26)
- https://youtu.be/J82vUMHVXu4?si=xWwVfF-Ek8hyObWP - Let’s Be Frank about CABERNET FRANC - No Sediment (6:49)
- 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!!