WTN: Wines we love (cabernet franc)

[Jenise]

I ruminated over our discussion here about wine descriptors and localized familiarity while drinking this wine over the last three days, because huckleberry describes this and often the Cabernet Franc grape so well, yet most people are unfamiliar with it. I was oblivious myself until I moved to the PNW. The flavor is blacker than cassis but redder than blueberry, with a spiciness and natural acidity that makes it better than either. (It's the only flavor of red or black jam we keep in the house, though not easy to find outside of farm stands in Oregon and Montana.)

2018 Acorn Cabernet Franc Alegría Vineyards Russian River Valley
Almost exactly three years ago this lovely blend of 11 CF clones showed mostly red fruit with the medium body typical of, say, pinot noir. A year later, a bottle I slipped into a Loire tasting with a lot of expert Europhile palates present impressed by passing for a native. The alcohol is a modest 13.5%. This bottle this week, consumed over three days, is much darker than the earlier bottles in color and weight; and in complexity and tone it's more similar to a warm vintage Baudry Le Grezaux than a typical California CF. Evolved but not mature, it displays vivid huckleberry and cassis fruit, mild herbs, and more earthiness on day 3 than on day 1, and no fade. Drinks well now but has plenty of structure for future evolution. I just love love love this wine.

[David M. Bueker]

I didn’t know huckleberry until Laura and I started visiting Mistaya Lodge in the backcountry of the Canadian Rockies. There’s a huge bunch of huckleberry bushes very close to the lodge, so the berries show up in all sorts of ways, from sauces, to jams, to desserts. I shall have to ponder the Cabernet Franc profile and how it compares to wild huckleberries.

Cool note, Jenise. I'll have to visit the winery the next time I'm out there. Huckleberries grow wild on Mount Tamalpais, and I use to go there with my mother to pick them for jam. Later on, I spent two summers on a ranch in Montana and huckleberries were everywhere. Huckleberry pie is a fond memory from those years and, though I do like blueberries (especially the ones we pick in SW Mich), I'll take huckleberries over them despite only eating them cooked.

Wow this title should gather some discussion! Cab Franc has quite a spot in my cellar..and good selection downtown. Pity no Baudry in Calgary.

[Jenise]

David, that's interesting. I have yet to encounter huckleberry in British Columbia--of course that doesn't mean it isn't there, and I don't frequent tourist shops where one might find huckleberry jam. (One does sometimes in Washington--at SeaTac for instance-- though of course quality varies. The homemade stuff is by far the best.)

But Mark gets what I'm talking about. Unfortunately the Acorn winery is no more, closed/sold about two years ago. It was my favorite discovery of our Sonoma stay in early 2022. A small but classy mom and pop operation wherein Mom was an ex-banker and Pop an ex-lawyer who bought 30 acres from the Rafanellis next door and worked the winery by hand.

I discovered them online somehow--none of us had ever tasted or previously heard of their wines. It was during Covid and like most they had a strict limit on four persons per party and were only open on Saturdays for appointments. There were ten of us, but somehow over the phone they got that we were not the usual tourists, said okay, and generously opened almost everything they had for us.

Pop, a high-end yuppie who still looked more like a lawyer than a vigneron, was endlessly fascinated by grape varieties and by his own admission never met a grape he didn't like. He had rows of this and rows of that, and lots of nearly one-offs of a zillion different varieties and clones within each, and whenever a vine died within a row he was likely to put almost anything in its place. So while each bottling was primarily one thing, each was a field blend of up to maybe a dozen different grapes--true to type, but more magical. IIRC, his gruner actually had 22 different white varieties in it. As a geek who grows his own grapes, you'd have loved this guy. I found their wines irresistable and even though I was already over my intended limit of 2 cases (we drove down and only had so much room in our little Audi), we somehow made room for an entire mixed case from Acorn.