Andrew Will Cabernet Franc

Andrew Will Cellars 
Cabernet Franc
Columbia Valley
Vashon, Washington, U.S.A.
2009
14.2%
$25.99 at Twin Liquors, Bee Cave, TX

Color: Dark ruby
Nose: Ass coffee, fresh berries and cream, roasted orange, faint nutmeg
Body: Medium to full
Front: Red cassis, cherry
Middle: Cherry-flavored coffee, with a touch of cream
Back: Currant tea, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Andrew Will makes some phenomenal wine. But it's hard times, and now they're making a sort of second-label wine. Mind you, it's $30 a bottle, so perhaps the concept didn't quite sink in. The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the initial release of the value series, is a total Pottery Barn Wine. But this one is different.

Now, you could ask, If you're going to try to make a more popular wine, with a wider reach, why make a Cabernet Franc? Americans don't know what Cabernet Franc is any more than they know what ass coffee is, even though both are in a lot of reds they drink. But the balance of bright, tart fruit with coffee-cream goodness in this bottle will erase such questions. If there was ever a Cab Franc that might convert average wine buyers, this is it. I'm guessing, however, that the black label Andrew Will series is going to rotate varietals, and that's all good as far as I'm concerned. Much though I want this house to succeed, I don't want too many people getting into these wines.

This lacks the power of their more senior wines--has a shorter finish and less body. But with any kind of food, it's great; it opens fast, and if this were $50 at a restaurant, I'd order it and be delighted. And second rank though it might be, this will age a bit, without question: the tannins are soft and polite, but they are insistent, balancing the acid of the fruit, and promising some deeper harmony in a few years.

Virage

Virage Vineyards
Napa Valley Red Wine
Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa, California, U.S.A.
2007
14.4%
$45.00 -- Virage Vineyards, Napa, CA

Color: Deep ruby with a tinge of purple
Nose: Herb, spice, a little lovely stank, vanilla, violets
Body: Medium to full
Front: Cherry
Middle: Currant, cilantro
Back: Smooth tannins, anise 
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

My affection for Cabernet Franc is well-known to my tiny following. As it happens, one of my blog's followers makes one, and this is her maiden vintage. I'm delighted to be among the first to drink this wine, and have been looking forward to it for months. As a point of information, this bottle (pictured at right with Wayne Bates pottery) wasn't a gift; indeed, I've never had a wine company send me anything to review, which shows that I have been doing something wrong!

This is a wine of tremendous subtlety, that rewards patience and a good meal to accompany it. The nose is enchanting, and more so the more air it gets. It has a combination of greenness--herby greenness, more than broccoli or that sort of thing--with dark fruit and telluric aromas that I like in some European wines and that's pretty rare in American ones.

At this price point, doubtless people who encounter this wine will decant it and give it an hour or two to open. Having gifted three bottles of it (see, Emily, I'm spreading the word in the best of ways, not just in the watered-down medium of a review!) I'm going to lay down my other two for two and five years: structurally they're built to last, and I am excited to see what the future holds for them and their younger siblings. {Note, in 2014: Just a beautiful wine, evolving slowly and surely.}

Robert Sinskey Cabernet Franc

Robert Sinskey Vineyards
Cabernet Franc
Vandal Vineyard
Los Carneros
Napa, California, USA
2002
13.5%
$20.99 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Deep ruby
Nose: Chipotle-cedar chocolate covered cherry
Body: Full
Front: Sour cherry
Middle: Licorice, raspberry
Back: Cigar wrapper, coffee, assertive tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This is only the second Cab Franc I've reviewed, despite my affection for this varietal. There's something elusive and haunting about it. People talk about the soft tannins, flowerdy smell, and about the chocolateyness of it, but that ain't it for me. I've had tongue-wrappingly tannic ones, and dark fruit dominated ones with no sign of mocha. I find it a moving target, when it's the principal grape in the blend.

If there's not a smidgen of Merlot in this, I'll be shocked. 2002: it's eight years old at this point, and still tannic, and no sign of brown at the edges. Try it with chocolate, or something lightly spicy, and I think it'll drink easier. But for me this is a wine for drinking when you want to think about things, including the weirdness of taste, as an experience. It's far from easy drinking, but far from unrewarding, too.

M. Cosentino Franc

Cosentino Winery
Franc
Cabernet Franc
California
Woodbridge, California, USA
2007
14.6%
$14.99 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Deep ruby
Nose: Cherry, cinnamon, Slim Jim, cream, pie crust
Body: Full
Front: Cherry
Middle: Licorice, raspberry
Back: Cigar wrapper, coffee, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This is a two-dimensional wine, but both dimensions are good. The first is the scent: lovely, baked meat pie with fruit on top odors. The second dimension is the taste, firm tannins and fruit and a little darkness. Neither changes much as the wine is open. If the fruit isn't largely Lodi and Paso-area, I'll be shocked, given the taste profile of this wine. But it's good with food--an artichoke-mozzarella-olive-tomato thing with a melon and prosciutto main course, tonight. (They say don't ever grocery shop when you're hungry; if you grocery shop right after exhausting yourself athletically in 105-degree weather, it will equally spin things... towards the uncooked!)

Cabernet Franc one of my favorite varietals, but I haven't sought it out often because so few people will drink it with me. The oenorati tell me that it's less tannic than Cabernet Sauvignon, to which I say, it depends on how it's made and where it's grown. It makes some drinkers make bitter beer face, and that is enough evidence for me. The other Cab Francs I've got are earnestly aging, to lose a little more of that dry bite and gain a bit of complexity; I don't think this one will age much, so go for it now, with some cheese!