Wine Blogging Wednesday: French Cab Franc

This month's host for Wine Blogging Wednesday is Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV and the topic is French Cabernet Franc. I wasn't able to find a wine that was from a majority of this grape but I did find a nice wine. First, a little information about the grape. (Click on the Wine Blogging Wednesday logo to learn more about this monthly blogging event.)

Cabernet Franc (Cab Franc) is one of the six red grapes permitted to be grown in the Boredeaux. Depending on how it's grown, Cab Franc can be both fruitier or more "vegetative" than Cabernet Sauvignon, although lighter in color and tannins. Wines made from 100% Cab Franc tend to have a spicy aroma and plums. The grape is usually blended with either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot instead of as a stand-alone wine. It "contributes finesse and a peppery perfume to blends with more robust grapes."

The wine I tried was from the Fronsac region on the "Right bank" of Bordeaux. The Fronsac is located where the Isle River flows into the large Dordogne River. This creates a microclimate that reduces night frosts in spring and cools the summer's heat. The steep slopes in Fronsac help the Bordeaux grape varieties grown here create powerful and complex wines. The soils are clay mixed with limestone.

Fronsac wines are described as being "masculine" and full-bodied. Grapes were grown in this are before the more famous Saint-Emilion just down the river. Merlot grows better here than Cabernet Sauvignon, so like other Right-bank areas, Fronsac is know for it's Merlot blends. Cab Franc is used to add spiciness and enhance the tannins.

The Bordeaux blend I tried for this WBW is from Chateau Villars, a two hundred year old winery in Fronsac. For the past two decades, the owners of Ch. Villars have been modernizing their vineyards and wine making practices. One example of this is that grapes are picked at maximum ripeness, causing the harvest to spread over several weeks. I learned from the book Nobel Rot (the Wine Book Club selection for April) that traditionally grapes were picked to insure maximum harvest before rains came. By waiting for maximum-ripeness, wines with fuller, fruitier flavors are produced.

The Ch. Villars wine I had was 75% Merlot, 18% Cab Franc and 8% Cab Sauvignon. It was 100% barrel-aged for a year in oak barrels, a third of which were brand new. This was a really nice Merlot, though it was different due to the amount of oak used. I had never been able to detect oak in a red wine before this wine, but it was definetly present in the Ch. Villars (Gary would make a comment about the "Oak Monster" I'm sure!) When I first smelled the wine, I could detect cherry and a fresh bread aroma. I couldn't name the fruit I tasted but there without being "fruit forward."

The wine has a medium mouth feel and really nice tannins that don't overpower the fruit or my toungue. Then just before I was about to swallow I could detect the oak. It wasn't excessive, but contributed to make the wine seem fuller. Some may not like it, though. The finish left a pleasant sour cherry taste and lasting tannins. This wine would be really good with food.

Its interesting how the oak effect the middle of my tongue more than any other area of my mouth. The oak also came back again in the finish. I've had other Merlots before, but I'm not sure what part the Cab Franc contributed to this wine to make it different. The oak was more detectable for me. I'll have to read other WBW posts today and try to find some of those wines to get a better feel for what Cab Franc offers. It would be cool to taste a 100% Cab Franc, a 100% Merlot, and then my Ch. Villars blend to see if I could then pick out the different varietals in the blend. I would definitely buy this wine again. The winery website said the wine will be best between 2012 to 2025. It would be nice to try it then to see how the wine deveolops.

Tasting Notes:

2005 Château Villars Fronsac ($19.99)

Color:  Dark purple

Aroma:  Cherry and bread (wonderful Merlot nose)

Taste:  Fruit and oak, medium mouth feel

Finish:  Sour cherry, medium tannins and oak

April 2008 Events

This month holds several wine events for me, three in this week alone! Here's a run down of what April holds for me:

April Fool's Day:  Two events

The first event today is a virtual wine tasting being hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV fame titled "Gary's April Fool Surprise."



Gary has picked three different wines to review in this virtual tasting. Viewers cchoose to buy in advance and then taste along with him to compare notes. Shipping was free and you could buy either a one bottle pack, a two bottle pack or all three.

I went with the one bottle pack and I was VERY pleasantly surprised. Not only is it a great wine, there is a tie in with the Wine Blogging Book Club book of the month! I'll be drinking the wine and watching today's episode so I can compare notes with Gary and other viewers. I'll share my observations in a future blog post.

Midtown Winers:

Today is also the monthly meeting of an old fashioned wine tasting event where people actually gather together and taste the same wine and talk about it. Strange concept, but it's been working for quite a while at the Midtown Winers in Sacramento, CA. This month's topic is "Obscure Varietals," defined as the lesser know Bordeaux varietals of Petite Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. I bought a Petite Verdot to share. I also bought a Cabernet Franc, but that has to do with the next event.

April 2:  Wine Blogging Wednesday

This monthly virtual wine tasting event is also hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk and the theme is French Cabernet Franc. What a coincidence! I was not able to get a 100% Cab Franc, my wine only has 18% Cab Franc. I hope it counts. Maybe I'll run across a 100% Cab Franc at the Midtown Winers tonight. Either way, I enjoyed the Bordeaux wine I tasted for WBW # 44.

April 20:  Winery Event in Clarksburg

I'm going to need a break after this week! Fortunately the next event isn't until the middle of the month. A local winery, Scribner Bend Vineyards, is having a "release party" in Clarksburg. They have a varietal I've never tried a white wine from the Fiano grape! I enjoyed my trip to Clarksburg in March and it will be great to see the vineyards in full bloom a month later.

April 29:  Wine Blogging Book Club

The second book of the Wine Blogging Book Club is Nobel Rot. I've really been enjoying reading this book. It not only details a year in Bordeaux, but it gives great history of Bordeaux and details about making wine from grape to bottle.

Dates Through April:  My first Garagiste delivery

Dr. Debs, from Good Wine Under $20, wrote a post back in January about the hush, hush web-site Garagiste. The owners of the site get hard to find wines from all over the world for affordable prices. I intended to buy a case of Italian wines from Corti Brothers, but my plan was put on hold when I discovered this web site. I'll be receiving my first case from Garagiste this month. There are several wines from varietals I've never tried, some great sounding wines from great regions like Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rioja and Scilily to name a few. I'll have even more interesting wine to blog about once the bottles start arriving!

Here's hoping your April is as promising looking as mine and that your April Fool's day is uneventful!

A Cheap Experiment

I was killing some time this weekend while I was waiting to pick up my son. While he finished his Magic tournament, I was browsing the wine isle of a nearby grocery store. A bottle on the discount table caught my eye. First, the price was only $3.29 and second, one of the grapes in it was one I haven't had before: Müller-Thurgau (# 56 towards my Century count.) I didn't expect much from this purchase but thought it would be a cheap way to start learning about the grape. I'm afraid I'm more confused now!

It appears that Müller-Thurgau is not held in high regard. This grape is a cross of Riesling and Silvaner created by Dr. Hermann Müller in an effort to bring the quality of Riesling to the productivity of Silvaner. I read in several places that the grape is great for growing in colder regions of the world because of it is early ripening and very productive. However, comments like "Müller-Thurgau has never been known for quality and is almost single-handedly responsible for the decline of Germany as a world power in fine wine production" made me wonder about how wine made from this grape would taste.

The wine I bought off the discount table was a Ludwig Neuhaus Piesporter Michelsberg made from 70% Riesling and the remainder from Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner. The first taste was sweet, but it wasn't an overpowering sweetness like I've had with other off-dry Rieslings. The wine had a different flavor, that I can only describe as nut like, though that doesn't quite fit. The wine was more interesting than I expected. The sweetness was balanced by acidity and changed into the "nutty" flavor. The finish, though laking any tannins, left a sour apple flavor. I was surprised at how much I liked the wine.

The sweetness didn't quite allow it to go well with food, but maybe I just didn't have it with the right dish. We had spaghetti noodles with asparagus, zucchini and tomatoes that had been sauteed in garlic and olive oil. By itself, this was a great sipping wine. I think it would be great to serve before dinner.

My lingering confusion comes from enjoying the wine so much but paying so little (I may be falling into the high price = good wine trap.) Also comments like:

"Piesporter Michelsberg is a sub-region of the Mosel surrounding Piesport, not a vineyard. The wines under this declaration mostly come from flat mediocre vineyards at best, and is almost always of very, very, very poor quality."
How to select German fine wine

make me wonder if my palate just isn't experienced enough.

Have you tried a Riesling with Müller-Thurgau that was enjoyable? Especially let me know if you've tried the wines from Ludwig Neuhaus. If I find any bottles of this left when I go back to the grocery store I plan to pick them up. This would make a great wine for the coming hot Sacramento weather.

Related Note:
Last week, Mike Dunne from the Sacramento Bee had an article on Riesling. One of the things he mentioned was an idea to use color coded circles on bottles of Riesling to help consumers know what kind of a Riesling they are buying. Colors "ranging from green for a perceptibly dry Riesling to red for a dessert Riesling, the sweetest of the genre," were suggested. Read the article and let me know what you think.

Tasting Notes:

2005 Ludwig Neuhaus Piesporter Michelsberg Qualitatswein (9% alcohol, $3.29 on sale)

Color:  Light golden yellow

Aroma:  grass

Taste:  light sweetness, nutty flavor; both blend well with the acidity

Finish:  slight sour apple

Carvalho Family Wines

At the beginning of the month I visited several wineries in the Clarksburg area of California. This little know AVA (American Viticultural Area) Is a sixteen mile long by eight miles wide area spanning Sacramento, Solano and Yolo counties. It has over 9,000 acres of vines. Travelling the levee roads along the Sacramento River, you cross many old draw bridges to view the fields of grape vines. Summer days can be very hot in the Sacramento Valley, but the cool Delta breeze keeps the area nine degrees cooler than the city and suburbs of Sacramento.

More than twenty wine grape varietals grow well in the Clarksburg area. The grapes that grow best here are Chenin Blanc and Petite Sirah. Although there are about ten wineries located in the area, 90% of the grapes grown here are crushed outside the appellation. Several wineries are now producing under the AVA name, which may bring recognition for the area. One winery worth getting to know is Carvalho.

Carvalho Family Wines, according to their wed site, has been making wine "over 100 years, starting in the villages and vineyards of Portugal." Their heritage is evident in the port they make using traditional Portuguese varietals of Touriga, Tinta Cao, and Alvarelhao. Other port like wines I tried from other Clarksburg wineries were made from Petite Sirah and Zinfandel. The Carvalho port tasted like the real thing.

The Carvalho family owns the Old Sugar Mill, a former sugar mill converted to a warehouse where they and several other Clarksburg wineries age barrels of wines and have their tasting rooms. It's a convenient way to sample wines from five different wineries in one place. The day I visited I wasn't able to meet the Carvalho wine maker, but the staff that poured for me were very knowledgable and answered all my questions.

One of my goals that day was to sample Clarksburg Chenin Blanc. Just that week, an article came out in my local paper about Darrell Corti being inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame. In the article, Mike Dunne mentioned Corti's claim that "the best chenin blanc made in California is made in Clarksburg." The Carvalho Chenin Blanc proved Corti's claim.

I have had Chenin Blanc before, but couldn't remember it. All I can remember is descriptions I've read putting it down as a bland jug wine. However, its supposed to have mineral flavors and high acidity that balance well with the sugars when its made off-dry. These sound like the flavors I like about Riesling or a good Sauvignon Blanc. Also, well made Chenin Blanc from the Loire has a distinctive, musty, damp straw aroma. The grape is also grown in South Africa where it is supposed to be made into enjoyable wine. In fact Dr. Debs blog pack on Domaine547 features a South African Chenin Blanc. Winehiker has been saying great things on Twitter about it.

When I tried the Carvalho Chenin Blanc I expected it to be like a sweet Sauvignon blanc but although it smelled of pinapple like a Sauvignon blanc and had some grassy flavors, it was different from the SBs I've had before. I was definitely a light wine, but the flavors were distinct and enjoyable. This was a nice dry wine and possibly because of the 10% Viognier, it had a nice mouthfeel. It had a light finish with an pleasant, almost sour aftertaste. I only bought one bottle (only $9.00) but I may be going back soon for more.

I look forward to trying more Chenin Blanc and other wines from Clarksburg wineries. In fact, on April 20th, Scribner Bend Vineyards is having a "release party" in Clarksburg. They don't have a Chenin Blanc but they make another white wine from the Fiano grape! I'm looking forward to it.

Tasting Notes:

2004 Chenin Blanc, Clarksburg ($9.00, 12.5% alcohol)

Color:  Very faint yellow

Aroma:  Faint nose, like a Gavi

Taste:  Very grassy, faint fruit and intense flavor, dry and very good.

Finish:  Faint tannins and light aftertaste

The Century Mark

One of my goals in life is to live to be 100 years old. My odds of making it don't look good, as only 1 American in 10,000 has lived to be a century old. I don't think I could ride my bike in a century ride as it takes me almost half an hour to ride 6 miles to work each day. That would translate to about 10 hours of bike riding! There is one century mark that I do have hopes of completing: The Wine Century Club.

Members of this club have tried at least 100 different grape varieties. The group tries to "promote the awareness of uncommon grape varieties" defined as any grape not in the "classic grapes" (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.) The clickable picture to the left shows the top half of their application, which you can get in either PDF or Excel spreadsheet form. There are about 185 grapes listed on the form, with spaces to add any grapes they may have missed. I'm currently at grape #52, half way towards the century mark.

Seeking to become a member of this group appeals to me for several reasons:

1 - It's a fun way to learn about wine!   After all, what is wine but grape juice. Part of the fun of wine for me is learning what goes into making a wine, where it came from and what grapes it's made from. A wine doesn't have to be a single varietal to count. A Portuguese blend of Touriga, Tinto Cao and Alvarlhao would count as three grapes. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this point!) Having a list and a goal helps give some direction to the general goal of learning about wine.

2 - It appeals to my desire to collect things.   I enjoy learning the history, facts and stories associated with the hobbies I get interested in. I like to have a tangible item that I can look at that reminds me of a particular facet of the hobby. Coin collecting is an obvious example of this, where I tried to find an example of each coin design for a series. In amateur astronomy, I couldn't collect stars, but I would catalog the different celestial objects as I observed them, writing down the date I saw them, a description and sometimes drawing a picture of what I saw. I don't intend to collect bottles of wine, but having the Century Wine Club's list of grapes helps me "collect" the different grapes I've tried.

3 - It is a challenge!   I probably make my life much more complicated than it needs to be. Instead of just riding my bike to work I'll see if I can beat my fastest time. Instead of just taking notes about the wines I drink, I've committed to writing a wine blog. I think one of the reasons I do this though is it makes it more fun. The pursuit of a goal and accomplishing it is a great feeling. I'm going to be trying different wines from different grapes anyway, so why not have something to show for it when I'm done?

I don't want the certificate from the Century Wine Club to my end goal in this pursuit. I want this to merely be a marker on the way to a lifetime of learning about wine and constantly trying new wines. There are almost 200 different grapes on the list. It would be cool to reach my own century mark and have tried 300 different grapes! Gary Vaynerchuk was saying the other day on Wine Library TV that you can't get to know a type of wine until you've had 20 to 40 examples of it. Now that's a goal: 20 different types of each of the 100 grapes! This could get fun.

The Wine Century Club

Here's a list of some of the 391 members current members of the Wine Century Club who have wine blogs:

• Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page
• Catavino
• Cork Jester
• Crush TV
• De Long Wine
• Dibbern on Wine
• Dr. Vino
• Grand Cru Classes
• Hollywood Hill Vineyards
• Jenny Neill
• Jimmy’s 43
• Kelly Magyarics Wine Consulting
• Kelly’s Grape Times
• LeNell’s
• Snooth
• The Grape Less Traveled
• The Wine Chicks
• The Wine Messenger
• The Wine Tutor
• Ultimate Wine Company
• Vina Globo
• Vitis Vitae
• Wine Alchemy
• Wine and Stories from the Vineyard
• Wine Lover’s Page
• Wines Sans Frontieres