Journal | April 1, 2020
Hardscrabble Journal
Cabernet Franc
As is often our habit, yesterday’s lunch was accompanied with a wine from our “mystery wine” cellar. It was a very deftly balanced Cabernet Franc from Sanctuary Vineyard on the North Carolina coast. Kudos! By coincidence, that afternoon I found myself preparing Cabernet Franc vines for replants. It got me thinking.
After more than thirty years of growing the vines and making the wine, I still don’t understand Cabernet Franc. The vine is well adapted to the East Coast. It is productive, disease resistant, and cold hardy. I’ve tasted very good examples from Ontario down to North Carolina.
But I’m still hard pressed to describe a typical Hardscrabble Cabernet Franc. Back in the 1980s and 1990s there were two sizable blocks planted here. One suffered from inappropriate soils (too rich and clayey), and the other was a large berried Loire clone that made pretty, but unremarkable wines. For decades I was unconvinced that Cabernet France was right for our site.
Eventually in 2009 it was decided that Cabernet Franc should be given one more chance: an A+ planting with the right soils, clone, and vineyard layout. The result was consistently big, beautiful wines that usually became part of Hardscrabble Red. At this stage, because of the small size of the planting and the monolithic characteristics of the wines, the Cabernet Franc will be destined as a blending component. As our new plantings begin to produce, commensurate volume increases along with a diversity of sites will give us more colors on our palette. This may give the opportunity to produce a varietal Cabernet Franc, which hasn’t been done here since 2010.
Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Journal: April 1, 2020