Old World vs New World Cab Franc: Game on! (#WinePW)

You know Cabernet Franc. Sure, you do.

Cab Franc is that bit player in classic red Bordeaux – the gray-haired dude singing backup vocals to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, his famous offspring.

Long appreciated in the Central Loire Valley of France – where it’s bottled as a single varietal under various place names (Chinon, Bourgueil, St.-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, Saumur-Champigny) – Cab Franc is stepping into the limelight nowadays and gaining its own grateful fans.

Cab Franc is French by name and birthright, supposedly planted in the Central Loire in the 11th and 12th centuries by monks. According to tradition, Cab Franc arrived in England through Brittany; the English called the wine vin breton.

When I lived on the East Coast and visited wineries from New York State to Virginia, I’d often encounter a single-varietal Cab Franc. Hardy and cold-tolerant, the grape adapts well to the variable climate in this part of the country. “We can get it ripe,” explained a New Jersey winery salesperson I met at the Eastern Wine Expo in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

I’m a fan of Cab Franc – especially when pairing this typically herbaceous wine with a hearty stew. So I was happy to find a “New-World” Cab Franc from Washington, my new home state, to compare to a highly acclaimed “Old-World” cousin for this month’s Wine Pairing Weekend chat. If you can, please grab a bottle and join us this Saturday, 12/12, on Twitter, starting at 8 am PT/11 am ET. Simply follow the #WinePW hashtag.

OK, game on! Let’s jump to the tasting.

2017 Bernard Baudry Le Domaine Chinon AOC
100% Cabernet Franc

Bernard Baudry hails from a winemaking family. After studying enology (winemaking), he started his career as a consultant at the Tours laboratory. In 1975, he purchased his own five-acre tract in Cravant-les-Coteaux, a village in the Touraine region of the Central Loire. Son Matthieu studied winemaking as well; in 2000, after a year working in Tasmania and California, he joined his father.

Today, the Baudrys grow 90% Cabernet Franc and 10% Chenin Blanc on 79 acres of vineyards. The vineyards have varied soils ranging from gravel to sandy limestone and clay. This diversity allows the father/son team to apply “piecemeal winemaking,” that is to say, they harvest and vinify grapes from each plot separately.

The vineyard has been maintained organically since 2006. The Baudrys create their own cow-manure compost and limit vine treatment to the use of copper, sulfur, and natural plants such as horsetail and nettles.

“No interventionist winemaking” is the rule in the cellar. They use only natural yeasts to make “mono-varietal wines” that showcase each terroir (climate, soil, aspect) and vintage – 2017, for example, was a warm, “generous” year that reminded Loire farmers of 2009.

Grapes for the Baudrys’ Le Domaine Chinon are grown in 70% sandy limestone and 30% gravel on vines that are 30 to 35 years old. Manually harvested with just a slight bit of sulfur added during transport, the fruit is sent by gravity into cement vats for a two-week fermentation without chemical additives or temperature controls. Aging takes place for 15 months in unlined cement or oak vats. No filtration is used.

My tasting notes: Opaque ruby in color with purplish hues. Beautifully integrated aromas of violets, black cherry, licorice, and wintergreen. Palate is earthy and herby with roasted red pepper, oregano, bay leaf, and a sprinkle of black pepper on a long finish. Medium+ acidity. Silky tannins lend a light touch to this wine. Alcohol: 12.5%. Price: $25. This structured and elegant Cab Franc was the #44 Wine Spectator Top 100 wine of 2019.

2017 Isenhower Cellars i-label Cabernet Franc, Columbia Valley

100% Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is used primarily as a blending wine in Washington. However, Isenhower Cellars has crafted 100% Cabernet Franc wines since 2002.

Isenhower Cellars was the 18th winery in Walla Walla when it opened in 1999. Today, Walla Walla is home to more than 120 wineries and was voted America’s Best Wine Region in the 2020 USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

Denise Isenhower is the general manager, and husband Brett is the winemaker. Indiana natives, they both are pharmacists by training. They were married in 1995 and moved to Boulder, Colorado. Brett earned his master’s in business administration from the University of Colorado in 1997 and started a career in corporate health care. He was dissatisfied, though, and dreamt of pursuing winemaking. Denise agreed as long as they stayed in the western part of the country.

Like most Washington winemakers, the Isenhowers source their grapes from several large vineyard operators. Grapes for their wines are grown conventionally and primarily picked by hand. Farmers use anti-fungal sprays to prevent the growth of powdery mildew and other grape funguses. Most farmers use mechanical weed removal rather than weed sprays.

Brett Isenhower follows what he calls a minimalist (low-interventionist) approach to winemaking. His methods are fairly common to the industry. They include:

• Yeast inoculation and addition of nutrients. (Washington grapes tend to be so low in nitrogen that native yeasts cannot grow well enough to complete fermentation.)
• Removal of a small percentage of grape juice and replacing with a smaller portion of water to lower alcohol levels caused by elevated sugar levels.
• Addition of tartaric acid because Washington grapes can be deficient in acid.
• Wines are fined and filtered.

A complete list of his ingredients and processes can be found online. Wish that every winemaker were as transparent as Isenhower!

The highest-level Isenhower wines are made in limited quantities. Their i-label wines are made exclusively for sale in restaurants and wine retail. Red wines are aged in neutral French Oak barrels for 12 to 16 months prior to bottling.

Four vineyards and three clones comprise this 2017 i-label Cab Franc. 2017 was a return to a “normal” vintage – warm days and cool nights – after the extremely warm years of 2013 to 2016.

My tasting notes: Transparent ruby in color. Earthier on the nose than the Chinon, with oregano, thyme and roasted red pepper aromas blending with red fruit (cherry, raspberry, red currant). Palate follows the nose. High acidity – higher than the Chinon – and a bit more tannin but not offensively so. Medium+ finish. Alcohol: 13.8%. Price: $20.

Pairing notes: First, I opened the Chinon to taste with leftover lentil stew flavored with smoked apple turkey bacon. Super yum! Then I cooked up these lamb and feta meatballs from Always Ravenous (thanks, Jane!) for a Chinon/Isenhower comparison tasting. Thumbs up to both wines for compatibility, but the Chinon’s richer, dark fruit profile and silky tannins gave it a slight edge.

The pièce de résistance was bison stew. Easy to substitute bison for beef in your favorite recipe, but an adventurous culinary experiment for me to use game meat. As the stew simmered on the stove, I kept sniffing the Chinon. OMG, the herby aromas of the wine blended seamlessly with the aromas wafting from the cooking pot. Chinon again for the win, but the Isenhower was good, too.

Cab Franc I’ve known and loved

• The Finger Lakes region of New York State excels at cool-climate Cabernet Franc and Cab Franc rosé. I especially recommend Fox Run Vineyards on the west shore of Lake Seneca.

• My former home state of Pennsylvania is becoming known for Cab Franc. I recently paired a single varietal from Grandview Vineyards in Lancaster County with a Philly cheesesteak.

• Clark Smith adds some Merlot (22%) to create a Lake County, California, WineSmith Cab Franc with chocolate and tobacco notes. Though dry, the wine tastes sweet and has a satiny mouthfeel.

• I’ve also tasted and paired Loire Valley Saumur Champigny and a Bourgueil Rosé.

Rock on, Cab Franc! Don’t let those big Bordeaux kids push you into the background. Need more examples? Check out the posts below:

• Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Honey-Lemon-Sesame Drizzled Plancha’d Veggies + Garzón 2018 Reserva Cabernet Franc
• A Day in the Life on the Farm : Hungarian Short Ribs Paired with Dracaena Cab Franc
• The Quirky Cork: Francly Turkish! Turkish Cab Franc & Lamb Chops
• Grape Experiences: “Crush On Cabernet Franc!”
• Crushed Grape Chronicles: “Cab Franc – Sailing the Loire with a Pirate Princess”
• Exploring the Wine Glass: Championing for Cabernet Franc; The True Underdog
• Cooking Chat: Easy Bibimbap Recipe with Cab Franc Wine Pairing
• The Swirling Dervish: Biodynamic Bourgueil from Laurent Herlin for #WinePW
• My Full Wine Glass: “Old World vs New World Cab Franc: Game On!”
• Always Ravenous: “Cabernet Franc Paired with Flavors of Persian Cuisine”
• Enofylz:“Domaine Bousquet Gaia Cabernet Franc Paired with Sausage and Potato Pan Roast”
• Wine Predator: Cab Franc Thrives in California: Examples from Santa Ynez, Sonoma, El Dorado, Paso Robles #WinePW and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil’s Amirault “Le Vau Renou” 2016 Cabernet Franc
• Avvinare: Cab franc in Friuli Venezia Giulia
• Somm’s Table: “Old World/New World Cab Franc Explorations”