2007 Cabernet Franc Tasting, Tuesday, July 28, NYWCC, Part One: The Report

Posted by Neil Brody Miller on July 31, 2009

[Author’s note: Given that this essay is part report and part editorial, I've decided to publish it in two installments. Part Two will be posted in a day or two.]

Winemaking in the Finger Lakes region is at an interesting, if awkward, crossroads, akin to an adolescent caught momentarily between the innocence and exhilaration of a first kiss, and the difficult decisions and delayed gratifications of adulthood. Due largely to the critical and commercial success of Riesling, professional wine writers and local enthusiasts have proclaimed the Finger Lakes a world-class winemaking region capable of competing successfully in the international marketplace, and look expectantly to the production of other fine wines, reds as well as whites, by local wineries. Although I count myself among the region’s most enthusiastic supporters, however, I came away from the Cabernet Franc tasting that took place earlier this week at the New York Wine and Culinary Center, which I helped organize, with mixed feelings, and with a sense that the owners and winemakers of Finger Lake’s wineries face some difficult decisions as the industry continues to mature.

In addition to Riesling, nearly all Finger Lakes wineries produce a range of wines from vinifera varietals. There is a lot of excitement and uncertainty about these varietals: excitement that one of them could emerge as the “next big thing” for Finger Lakes winemakers, comparable to what Pinot Noir has meant for Oregon vintners, Malbec for Argentinian winemakers, or Shiraz (Syrah) for the Australians; and uncertainty about which varietal – specifically which red wine varietal, if any – is best adapted to the Finger Lakes’ soils and microclimates. Some winemakers are zealously devoted to a single varietal, such as Tom Higgins of Heart and Hands Winery, who produces only Pinot Noir (see Jason Feulner’s blog entry on Lenndevours.com for more information about this winery). Other wineries are less willing to bet the farm on a single grape, and produce several dry red table wines, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Bordeaux-style blends or Meritages, Pinot Noir, Lemberger (also known as Blaufrankisch, see Evan Dawson’s video entry on Lenndevours.com for what I see as a meaningless debate about a commercially marginal varietal), as well as a variety of dry and off-dry wines from French-American hybrids.

This is where the idea for the 2007 Cabernet Franc tasting originated. Among winemakers and professional wine writers, there is an emerging consensus that Cabernet Franc may be the red wine varietal best suited to the Finger Lakes region. The 2007 growing season, moreover, was unusually long and hot, and provided growers with some of the best conditions for harvesting fully ripened grapes of the past 20 years. With the 2007 Cab Francs coming to market, it seemed an ideal moment to gather a group of trade professionals – winemakers, food and wine writers and bloggers, and regional wine retailers – to taste the 2007 Cabernet Francs, compare them to Cab Francs from other wine growing regions, and assess and discuss the potential of the varietal for the Finger Lakes region. Evan Dawson, Finger Lakes editor for the New York Cork Report (formerly Lenndevours.com), and Peter Becraft, assistant winemaker at the Anthony Road Wine Company signed on in mid June as co-organizers; Alexa Gifford, Executive Director of the New York Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua, generously offered to host the tasting at the NYWCC, and Shannon Brock and Stephanie Wadhams, also of the NYWCC, worked out the details and planned the logistics of the tasting and the follow-up luncheon. By mid-July, an impressive group of winemakers, writers, and retailers had committed to participating in the event.

Winemakers:
Vincent Aliperti, Billsboro
Paul and Shannon Brock, Lamoreaux Landing
Peter Bell, Fox Run
Amy Cheatle and Phil Davis, Damiani
Kim Engle and Debra Bermingham, Bloomer Creek
Morten Hallgren, Ravines
Tom Higgins, Heart and Hands
Bob Madill and Dave Breeden, Sheldrake Point
Fred Merwarth, Hermann J. Wiemer
Johannes Reinhardt and Peter Becraft, Anthony Road
Rob and Kate Thomas, Shalestone
Dave Whiting, Red Newt
Mark Wiltberger, Keuka Spring

Writers and Retailers:
Jennifer Baskerville-Barrows, Cookin’ in the ‘Cuse, Edible Finger Lakes
Andrew Bowman, Andrew’s Wine Cellar, Oswego
Don Cazentre, Syracuse Post-Standard
Matt Christen, The Wine House, Manlius
Evan Dawson, The New York Cork Report
Holly Howell, RIT, Mountain Home Magazine
Rob Lane, Finger Lakes Weekend Wino, Mountain Home Magazine
Tom Mansell, Ithacork
Morgen McLaughlin, Finger Lakes Wine Country
Neil Miller, Stressing the Vine
Thomas Pellechia, VinoFictions
Dale and Allison Record, The Savvy Wine Cellar, Camillus
Gavin Sacks, Cornell University
David Sparrow, Sparrow’s Wines, Ithaca
Tom Tucker, Balloon Juice
Paula Valeri, BDL Wines, Rochester
Jason Wentworth, Northside Wines, Ithaca

As impressive as is this list, it was clear from the beginning that not all winemakers or retailers could participate (the NYWCC Demonstration Room seats 44 people), and that not all of the 2007 Finger Lakes Cab Francs would be sampled and discussed. Several winemakers were suggested who could not be accommodated, and several wines were recommended that were not selected. Altogether, however, I believe that a credible representation was assembled of the region’s trade professionals and 2007 Cab Francs. Evan Dawson, who led the tasting, arranged the tasting in two flights of eight wines each, with an additional flight of six reserve Cab Francs served with lunch.

Flight One.
Red Newt
Lamoreaux Landing
Shalstone
Anthony Road (Cabernet Franc-Lemberger)
Charles Joguet Chinon Clos de la Dioterie (2005)
Sheldrake Point
Ravines
Billsboro

Flight Two.
Weimer
Fox Run
Bloomer Creek
Damiani
Shinn Estate (Long Island)
Dr. Frank
Domaine des Valettes Bourgueil (2005)
Keuka Spring

Luncheon Flight:
Lamoreaux Landing T23
Anthony Road Martini-Reinhardt Selection
Red Newt Glacier Ridge Vineyards
Red Newt Sawmill Creek Vineyards
Charles Joguet Chinon Les Varennes du Grand Clos Franc de Pied (2005)
Sheldrake Point Barrel Reserve

Of the 16 wines poured for the tasting, my personal favorites were, in the order tasted: the Red Newt, Shalestone, Billsboro, Damiani, and Keuka Spring. All of these wines exhibited rich ripe cherry, plum, and berry flavors, with additional aromas and/or flavors of herbs, tobacco and mocha or chocolate. They were all flavorful, well made wines with good balance, concentration, and varietal expression that I would recommend enthusiastically to anyone interested in checking out a good Finger Lakes Cab Franc.

My least favorite wines, to my surprise, turned out to be the Joguet Chinons and the Valettes Bourgueil, which exhibited what the French insist is the unique terroir of their vineyards, but which were simply funky aromas and flavors. And I don’t mean P-Funk, Bootsy Collins, “get down with your bad self” funky, I mean freshly manured farm field, dirty sweat sock funky. Several of the winemakers and the more enologically savvy participants – Gavin Sacks of Cornell University, and Tom Mansell of Ithacork – attributed these off-putting aromas and flavors to “Brett” or brettanomyces, a problematical yeast strain. For my purposes, however, “funky” sufficed. More than I realized, my continued criticism of Parkeresque “fruit bombs,” excessive alcohol levels, and overly ripe wines notwithstanding, my taste has turned decidedly towards clean, fruit-driven, New World winemaking. Here, at least, I found myself in good company, as four of my top rated wines also numbered among the winemakers’ personal favorites (see Evan Dawson’s blog entry on the tasting for a more detailed breakdown of the results).

This is the point with which I want to conclude Part I of my essay. It became clear by the end of the second flight that the Finger Lakes Cab Francs were recognizably distinct from the French wines and the Long Island Cab Franc from Shinn Estates, and possessed general characteristics indicative of an emerging regional identity. In addition to the clean, varietally correct flavors typical of New World winemaking, the Finger Lakes Cab Francs were less deeply extracted (but no less flavorful), a bit lighter in terms of color and weight, tending towards a brilliant ruby garnet and medium body, highly aromatic, and with higher levels of acidity. Several of the wines were overly tannic, but many exhibited surprisingly soft tannins for what are still very young wines, as well as good structure and aging potential. Several participants commented on a lack of balance or overly high acidity in some of the wines, but I didn’t note either of these issues in the better wines. The reserve wines, which I forgot to mention earlier, were also uniformly excellent. The Lamoreaux Landing T23, technically not a reserve bottling but a “Loire style” wine fermented in stainless steel, was deeply fruity, consumer friendly, and very affordable ($14.99). The Red Newt single-vineyard Cab Francs, especially the Sawmill Creek Vineyards bottling, although pricey and a bit hard to find outside of the winery, were world-class wines well worth the effort and expense of tracking them down.

The best Cab Francs from the tasting, accordingly, were outstanding wines, with a weight and texture closer to Pinot Noir than to Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. This may be good news for Finger Lakes winemakers if they can figure out how to educate consumers about Cab Franc’s many attractive qualities, and how better to position and promote their Cab Francs in the marketplace. Pinot Noir consumption has been rising steadily for years, and more and more customers come into the wine shop every week seeking classically structured red wines that pair better with food than over extracted fruit bombs. These are big “ifs,” however, and I found little evidence at the tasting that either issue was being adequately addressed. The idea that consumers need simply to “buy more wine,” which was one winemaker’s off-the-cuff response to the topic of over production, is hardly a plausible or practical business strategy.

Next: Part II: There’s the Rub