Cabernet Franc Wine

Expert Notes

Yohan Castaing writes:  Vinified without sulfites and matured in stainless steel tanks, the 2022 Les Lizières offers a delicate, pure bouquet of cassis, spices, flowers and dark wild berries. Medium to full-bodied, juicy and round, it's well-balanced with velvety tannins and a juicy core of fruit that segues into a long, ethereal and fruity finish. This is a real effort.  Drinking 2024 to 2034.  - Robert Parker Wine Advocate 92

Winemaker Description 

Appearance: Ruby red Nose: Red berries, violet and iris Flavors: Light to medium bodied with fine tannins and supple fruit flavors. Try red Saumur with soft cheeses, stir fried chicken recipes, red lentil soup Served at 16 degree

Expert Review

Bernard Baudry is one of the best and most reliable Chinon producers. Les Granges is the introductory bottle, made from young cabernet franc vines, farmed organically, and intended for early drinking. It’s lively, juicy and earthy, and easy to enjoy. It would be especially good with the dark meat and earthy tuber dishes. Eric Asimov - The New York Times.

Winemaker Description

The Granges vines are an 8-hectare alluvial site along the Vienne River in Cravant, very close to the winery, planted in 1985 and 1988 and farmed organically like the rest of the estate. This is a wine that is supple and fruity with smoky cherry fruit and is meant to drink young. It is a perfect wine for simple foods and cheeses.

Winemaker Description

100% Cabernet Franc. Les Barnabés stands apart from Raffault's other main sites, Les Picasses and Les Peuilles, still in the Véron region but far to the west and downhill on a plain of alluvial soils near the Loire River.

The sandy, gravelly site yields a lighter style of Cabernet Franc more approachable with less aging compared to the other two. Like Picasses and Peuilles, Barnabés comes from fruit which is organically farmed, harvested by hand, destemmed but not crushed, and fermented in tank with native yeasts. The fermentation is at cooler temperatures and the aging in tank only, all to preserve the freshness and brightness of the fruit. It is the earliest release of the three reds.

Expert Review

Bart Hopkins 67Wine.com | A bright, energetic, beautifully focused red wine that makes food pairings an absolute pleasure. Juicy red fruits mingle with savory peppery complexity with supple tannins framed by classic minerality. Serve it lightly chilled and bring on the food!

Winemaker Description 

Delicious aromas of raspberry jam and spicy green grass lead to a luscious mouthful of dark red fruit, delicate soft tannins and a long spicy finish. Recommended with stews and spicy sauces.

Expert Review

Kristen Bieler writes: Light notes of cherry, licorice root and plum are ripe and plush, with a silky feel and a subtle waft of alder smoke and tobacco leaf. Dried violet, pepper and sage elements add detail on the firm, incense-kissed finish. Elegant and light on its feet. Drink now through 2027. - Wine Spectator 90

Winemaker Notes

The historic property of Chteau du Hureau - one of the only wine producing Chateaux in the Loire - is among the top producers of Saumur-Champigny. The Chateau has been in the family for generations, and today, is run by fifth generation vigneron Philippe Vatan and his daughter Agathe.

Their entry-level "Tuffe" is 100 percent Cabernet Franc fermented with native yeasts and aged in stainless steel tank.

Dark, intense and sappy, with plenty of lovely fruit and floral notes, balanced by acidity and minerality from the underlying limestone soils. The quality and intrigue of the Chteau du Hureau wines continue to soar, as does their following at home and abroad."~Distributor Notes

Winemaker Description 

Cassis and raspberries aromas. On the palate, first sweetness and freshness and then round and soft tannins.

FOOD PAIRING  Great with pork products, white meat, fish, and cheese.

Expert Review

John Gilman 96 Points | This is my first taste of Domaine des Closiers top bottling, les Trezellières, which is made from a parcel of old vines and given fully two years aging in barrel, with somewhere between ten and twenty percent of the casks new. The 2019 les Trezellières is beautifully deep and refined aromatically, delivering scents of black cherries, cassis, Cuban cigar wrapper, a very complex base of soil, a touch of Cheval Blanc-like menthol, a gentle dollop of tree bark, cedar and a topnote of cigar smoke. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, elegant and rock solid at the core, with great focus and complex, superb soil undertow, fine-grained tannins and a very long, pure and classy finish.

The small percentage of new oak gives this wine more refinement than the les Coudraies bottling, but because it is no more than twenty percent new oak, the wood influence is far more subtle out of the blocks than in Clos Rougeard’s Le Bourg bottling, which is the closest comparison I can think of for this brilliant young Saumur Champigny. Give this beautiful wine plenty of time in the cellar to properly resolve its tannins and completely blossom! (2019). 

Winemaker Description

Tuffe is Philippe Vatan’s red made from a wide variety of parcels spread across his limestone-rich vineyards. Aged in stainless-steel in an immaculate cavernous cellar, this has classic Cabernet Franc notes that include black raspberry and just the right amount of savory herbs while finishing with well-integrated tannins. 

Winemaker Description 

Aromas of ripe cherry and cedar lead to a delicate palate with subtle notes of white pepper, refreshing acidity, and soft tannins. 

Winemaker Description 

Aromas of black ripe fruit and roasted bell pepper together with the typical freshness of the variety mingle softly with the fermentation notes rendering elegance and hits of cocoa and vanilla.

Mouth: Powerful wine with juicy and ripe tannins. In the mid palate it exhibits a set of layers where the aromas appear and complement the wine, giving it an elegant and very expressive long finish.

Winemaker Description 

"L'Affreux Jojo" means "the ugly Jojo". In the stronghold of Cabernet Franc in Touraine, Geoffrey de Nouel highlights old terroirs, those of Sainte Maure de Touraine. The result is a wine without artifice, short-aged, full of fruit and with few sulphites: the awful Jojo!

Vinification: 1/3 whole cluster (carbonic maceration), 2/3 destemmed grapes. Maceration of 2-3 weeks. Fermentation is in fiber glass with natural yeasts. The wine ages for 6 months in fiber glass tanks. No filtration, no fining. Grape varieties :100% Cabernet Franc Vineyard age :25-year-old vines Soil Clay, flint, gravel Alcohol :12.5%.

Geoffrey de Noüel is a young vigneron on the rise in Chinon, an AOC located in central Loire, where some of the greatest Cabernet Franc is being produced. He started his winemaking journey in 2011 with a series of internships in Burgundy, then transported the Burgundian idea of cultivating and vinifying a singular grape on different plots (to showcase the terroir of each) to his own project in the Loire. All of Geoffrey's vineyards are certified organic, and his goal is to work as hands off as possible to produce transparent wines that showcase the varied soils of the area. Geoffrey is intent on showcasing the terroir of the different sites that he works with and believes in minimal intervention in the cellar.  

Winemaker Description 

100% estate, sustainably grown Cabernet Franc from our White Springs and 16 Falls Vineyards. Incredibly fresh and inviting with aromas of redcurrant, cranberries and mountain herbs.

The palate is pure and elegant, with notes of raspberries and hints of earth and spice. 

A perfect rendition of Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc, aged for a year in our 6-year-old, 2000 liter Austrian and Hungarian Oak casks.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2018

Benujamin Lewin, MW of Decanter writes 95 Points | Great sense of fruit purity on the nose, showing a mélange of black fruits. This shows brilliance on the palate, it’s very flavourful, with almost savoury undertones lingering on a very long finish. A sensation of gunflint shows retronasally. This is a rare combination: the height of elegance combined with depth. Drinking Window: 2032-2052.

La Revue du Vin de France writes 94 Points | As for Le Bourg, it remains faithful to the generously toasted and hedonistic expression of its barrel ageing. A concentrated material, a sensation of sweetness and power accompany the salient tannic framework that the years will soften. 

Winemaker Description 

Clos Rougeard was created in 1664 on the land of Chacé, a village not far from Saumur. Eight generations have succeeded one another at the head of the estate, the most recent being the Foucault brothers. From the 1980s onwards, Charly and Nady adopted a singular philosophy to enhance the terroirs of Saumur and Saumur-Champigny: leave the wine in peace so it can expresses its own identity. No synthetic products are added to the vines, gentle vinifications are thought out like infusions and minimalist approach is claimed. In 2017, the Bouygues family bought the estate and has continued the work begun by their emblematic predecessors with a deep respect for the DNA of the winery and its identity. Today the estate has found its balance thanks to a passionate team who strives to preserve the excellence and uniqueness of the wines whose depth, finesse and precision are unparalleled.

Located in the heart of the village of Chacé, Le Bourg is composed of very old vines and lies on a predominantly limestone terroir on shallow clay loam, typical of the Saumur-Champigny appellation. This wine reveals riper, fleshier fruit and a dense, full-bodied texture. Le Bourg is from vines averaging 80 years old, planted on a thin layer of clay over a deep bed of tuffeau, also in Chacé. The combination of vine age and richer soil makes this the most powerfully structured wine in Clos Rougeard’s array.

Winemaker Description 

Mellow tannins, along with a touch of bright acidity, guide this delicious little bistro-style red to a tasty, enduring finish. Enjoy an assortment of roasted or grilled vegetables, grilled chicken thighs marinated in Moroccan spices or pork chops slathered in homemade barbecue sauce.

L’Ile Quatre Sous comes from a single vineyard in Parnay with a high proportion of sandy soil which yields a softer “bistrot style” red wine to be enjoyed right away. The name means "Four Penny Island", and refers to an actual sandy bank located in the middle of the Loire River near Parnay (though no vines are actually planted there).

Winemaker Description 

Curious, adventurous and outgoing, Sagittarius enjoy meeting new people, telling stories, and connecting deeply with those around them. Playful and brave, this Fire sign enjoys trying new things and bringing light and humor to the mundane. Cabernet Franc is bold and refreshing with an aroma of eucalyptus that matches a Sagittarius’ honest and inquisitive personality. This wine is smoky and earthy with accents of cherry, raspberry and black pepper. Like the long finish of the Cabernet Franc, Sagittarians leave a lasting impact. As a mutable sign, they love to travel and see new sights, like this grape, which grows across the globe.

Winemaker Description 

Rich and intense, Inniskillin Cabernet Franc Icewine is a luxurious bottle of sweet and complex flavors. With aromas of ripe blackberry, raspberry and cherry, this Icewine is balanced with a hint of spice and a smooth finish. Enjoy this unique and special treat!

Winemaker Description

100% Cabernet Franc. Les Picasses is the most famous Chinon lieu-dit, close to the village of Beaumont-En-Vron on the north bank of the Vienne River. It is a slope with full southern exposure and chalky clay-limestone soils. Raffault's mid-slope vines are at least 50 years old and are worked organically and harvested by hand.

The fruit is destemmed with the berries left whole; they are fermented with indigenous yeasts in tank with a maceration of 25-30 days. The wine is aged for one to two years in 30-hectoliter oak and chestnut foudres; it is then aged in bottle for several years before release. 

Winemaker Notes:

Campo di Camagi is one of the three labels of 100% Cabernet Franc produced by Andrea Franchetti from 2014, who wanted to devote the utmost attention to this historic grape of Bordeaux, enhancing its characteristics in relation to three different terroir of the estate. It is produced exclusively with grapes from a single plot of 1.5 hectares composed of a thin layer of quartz and limestone. The 27 year old vines struggle to grow in this space, the stems do not grow, the roots have filled it.

Expert Reviews 

Monica Larner writes:   Made with Cabernet Franc, the Tenuta di Trinoro 2020 Campo di Camagi shows a level of sharpness and precision that you don't get as clearly in the other wines in this series of single-vineyard releases. There is more oak spice with redwood and cedar, along with crushed granite and pencil shaving. The wine is linear and delivers big intensity to the palate, and it has the structure and acidity to accompany a long drinking window.  Drinking 2024 2045  - Robert Parker Wine Advocate 95+

James Suckling writes:  So perfumed with violets and lavender with some currants. Medium- to full-bodied with polish and finesse. Racy and fine. Finesse with drive. Very elegant and straightforward with a racy texture. Very long and lightly edgy. 92% cabernet franc and 8% merlot. Drink after 2027 but already beautiful.  - James Suckling 96

Bruce Sanderson writes:  A spicy red, featuring a beam of black currant and blackberry fruit shaded by violet, black pepper, iron and mint. Lithe and ends with a line of resonant tannins on the tobacco-tinged finish. Cabernet Franc. Best from 2025 through 2038. 166 cases made, 65 cases imported.  Wine Spectator 94

Jancis Robinson writes:  Racy, lively and a little fragile and delicate. Tense.  Drinking 2024 - 2034  - Jancis Robinson 17.5