Editors' Picks: Cabernet Franc

For me, the best cabernet franc wines brim with alluring perfume, striking herbal lifts, juicy dark berry fruit and arresting pencil notes. Medium heft, well-tempered acids and lissom tannins add to the pure refreshment of cabernet franc. But one has to seek out wines and regions that celebrate this noble French grape as a solo act, since cabernet franc is often deployed in smallish percentages to uplift and refresh blends of cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

Hidden in these blends, cabernet franc can easily get lost. But in wines from cooler climates, where franc can fully express itself, unblended, its uplifting, refreshing qualities come into their own, which is why I adore this grape. Happily, the red wine pendulum is swinging towards lighter, juicier styles that quench thirst and flatter food, so we can expect to see more cabernet franc on the grape radar.

Early-ripening cabernet franc dominates in Bordeaux terroir where it is too cool for cabernet sauvignon, especially on the right bank real estate of St. Emilion and Pomerol. Well north of Bordeaux, in the graceful Loire Valley, cab franc abounds in Anjou-Touraine, especially in Chinon, Bourgueil, Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil, Saumur and Saumur-Champigny.

Gravelly shoals provide the finest sites, producing juicy, earthy, leafy wines that are light, yet intense; beefier and nicely oaked in the increasingly warmer vintages. Loire cabernet francs have a transparency that best reveals the true flowery, leafy, graphite, currant nature of my favourite red grape.

Outside of France, there are some lovely cabernet francs from Italy - from Bolgheri, to Friuli and the Veneto. Cab franc is nicely smattered throughout New World regions, as well. Though it is still largely used to flesh out blends, expressive all-cabernet franc wines can be found in South Africa, Chile, California, New York's Finger Lakes, Eastern Washington, British Columbia and Ontario.

Cabernet franc wines run the stylistic gamut from Loire-like ethereal to brawny, deeply fruited, lavishly oaked aristocrats, and are captivating when allowed to stand alone.        

Make sure to check out our other editors' picks:

An introduction by Anthony Gismondi

Sonoma

Sicily

Mosel-Saar-Ruwer

Chardonnay

Riesling

Maison Louis Jadot

Viña Montes

Seghesio Vineyards