WineSmith Lake County Cabernet Franc (3)

cortot20 · May 23, 2014, 2:14am

Tempted but my no wine buying for a couple of months is holding strong.

sailormercury · May 23, 2014, 2:21am

I swore I was not going to have any indulgent spending this month but you got me. I’m a sucker for strong mineral notes.

Last Wooter to Woot:
sailormercury

mikefaulk · May 23, 2014, 2:35am

We always like an excuse to throw a party :-)!!! Get in touch with me at mike.WineSmith@gmail.com and we will plan something out!!!

Happy wooting all!!!

Wicked_Gollum · May 23, 2014, 5:39am

Well Clark, your in-depth description has me buying my first ever, Wine.Woot.

Will get back to you after I’ve cracked the first bottle. =)

-WG

Cyradia · May 23, 2014, 6:34am

On another topic

In my view, there is an important distinction in Cab Franc between the bell pepper pyrazines and the herbal notes we’ve been discussing. To understand this distinction, it’s useful to consider how grapes evolved. To begin with, grapes are strictly for the birds. They use avian vectors to spread their seed. A berry is a seed delivery system for the gut of a bird, who will drop it in a nice plop of fertilizer miles away from the mother plant.

To get into perfect position for birds to munch them, grapes have evolved clever systems to climb trees. A tendril is a grape cluster with no berries. Grapes favor tendril production when they are down on the forest floor and shaded. Only when the reach the treetops do they make berries. They do this by responding to direct sunlight on the vine buds, which stimulates berry differentiation for the following year. Lots of other metabolic processes get turned on and off in grapes by light cues.
…

That was an awesome post.

rc70 · May 23, 2014, 7:15am

Clark, absolutely love your wines.Getting plenty of this for now and later enjoyment.

Last wooter to woot:rc70

jcassens5 · May 23, 2014, 7:32am

BAM! Dropped some knowledge on all us suckas! Haha thanks!

On another topic

Thanks for those very kind words.

In my view, there is an important distinction in Cab Franc between the bell pepper pyrazines and the herbal notes we’ve been discussing. To understand this distinction, it’s useful to consider how grapes evolved. To begin with, grapes are strictly for the birds. They use avian vectors to spread their seed. A berry is a seed delivery system for the gut of a bird, who will drop it in a nice plop of fertilizer miles away from the mother plant.

To get into perfect position for birds to munch them, grapes have evolved clever systems to climb trees. A tendril is a grape cluster with no berries. Grapes favor tendril production when they are down on the forest floor and shaded. Only when the reach the treetops do they make berries. They do this by responding to direct sunlight on the vine buds, which stimulates berry differentiation for the following year. Lots of other metabolic processes get turned on and off in grapes by light cues.

Grapes have very high sugar, and are highly nutritious even when at pea-size, when they are already 12 brix – half again the sugar of a ripe tomato. At that stage, when the seeds are not yet viable, they need to fool the bird into thinking the berry is a leaf or stem, by filling it with nasty vegetal pyrazines. Then as maturity takes place, these pyrazines are degraded and the berry will sweeten, soften, and acquire color and fruity flavors and other interesting nuances such as the herbal sage, tarragon and rosemary characteristic of CF. If the fruit remains in shade, the plant won’t bother with this transformation, and the fruit will remain poorly colored and full of vegie flavors.

In short, high pyrazines in CF are the result of poor farming or a site which is too rich or too wet. The more subtle herbal elements are a sign of vine balance and high quality.

One more element. Wines with poor color tend to have grainy and unstable tannins. That’s because anthocyanins act as bookend on tannin polymerization. The more color, the shorter the chains, and the finer the tannin colloids. Fine colloids not only give soft texture, they also contribute to aromatic integration and soulfulness by presenting a vastly greater interactive surface area between the phenolic colloids and the aqueous liquid around them, making it easier for volatile phenols (oak, Brett, vegie aromas) to intercalate into the wine’s structure rather than being pushed up into the nose. Finally, shorter polyphenols are more stable and less likely to precipitate out, meaning enhanced ageworthiness.

confusedemmy · May 23, 2014, 7:43am

Well, I blissfully enjoyed a bottle of this with my husband - back in February. I fell in love with good Cab Franc when I lived in the Finger Lakes area of NY… they can produce a good bottle in a warm year.

Anyway, the tasting notes that were on my fridge waiting (and waiting, and waiting…) for the wine to be offered seem to have disappeared recently, but I do remember a few things.

First off, I remember being ecstatic not to find any of those nasty green bell pepper notes that distinguish a poor/mediocre Cab Franc. I was waiting for them!

The wine had nice structure and balance good fruit, apparent minerals, and I distinctly remember getting a nice mint whiff after about an hour or so.

Right now I need red wine like I need to turn the heater on; here on the TX Gulf Coast it’s already steamy and I don’t have much room on the wine racks… but hitting that button anyway!

free2day33611 · May 23, 2014, 7:45am

When I ordered the shipping was still $5. Has the summer shipping not started? I’m in Florida and obviously already starting to get hot.
Anyway, love Cab Franc and the input from the winery. In for 3. The only other wine I had of Winesmith was the 2006 Lodi cab and it was great!

ltraffis · May 23, 2014, 8:49am

Hi Clark,

I’ve been on SIWBM, but this sounds like a great wine based on what I’m reading here. My concern is that I have a ton of wine and I’ll only consider wine that can age with the 500+ in the basement. How long do you thing this will be age worthy from vintage date? The only other option is to push this ahead of the pack and drink sooner. Thanks for the offering.

otolith · May 23, 2014, 8:51am

I’d like to say “Thank you!” to Mike from WineSmith for setting me up so I can buy this!

dalematthew · May 23, 2014, 8:58am

Great information - very interesting.

You can see I noted a touch of bell pepper - maybe I was just projecting an expectation in search of a flavor I couldn’t put my finger on. I’m not a huge CF drinker - and my wife has never been a fan.

When we were drinking this - we just kept on saying - wow - this is a really, really good, well integrated wine that was completely different to what we had traditionally thought of as a CF.

Now I know why!

coynedj · May 23, 2014, 9:07am

I might have to break my SIWBM, and work out shipping to either South Dakota (where I live) or Minnesota (where I frequently visit). Mighty tempting - mediocre Cab Franc is easily avoided, but a well-made one is wonderful!

PetiteSirah · May 23, 2014, 9:13am

On another topic

Thanks for those very kind words.

In my view, there is an important distinction in Cab Franc between the bell pepper pyrazines and the herbal notes we’ve been discussing. To understand this distinction, it’s useful to consider how grapes evolved. To begin with, grapes are strictly for the birds. They use avian vectors to spread their seed. A berry is a seed delivery system for the gut of a bird, who will drop it in a nice plop of fertilizer miles away from the mother plant.

To get into perfect position for birds to munch them, grapes have evolved clever systems to climb trees. A tendril is a grape cluster with no berries. Grapes favor tendril production when they are down on the forest floor and shaded. Only when the reach the treetops do they make berries. They do this by responding to direct sunlight on the vine buds, which stimulates berry differentiation for the following year. Lots of other metabolic processes get turned on and off in grapes by light cues.

Grapes have very high sugar, and are highly nutritious even when at pea-size, when they are already 12 brix – half again the sugar of a ripe tomato. At that stage, when the seeds are not yet viable, they need to fool the bird into thinking the berry is a leaf or stem, by filling it with nasty vegetal pyrazines. Then as maturity takes place, these pyrazines are degraded and the berry will sweeten, soften, and acquire color and fruity flavors and other interesting nuances such as the herbal sage, tarragon and rosemary characteristic of CF. If the fruit remains in shade, the plant won’t bother with this transformation, and the fruit will remain poorly colored and full of vegie flavors.

In short, high pyrazines in CF are the result of poor farming or a site which is too rich or too wet. The more subtle herbal elements are a sign of vine balance and high quality.

One more element. Wines with poor color tend to have grainy and unstable tannins. That’s because anthocyanins act as bookend on tannin polymerization. The more color, the shorter the chains, and the finer the tannin colloids. Fine colloids not only give soft texture, they also contribute to aromatic integration and soulfulness by presenting a vastly greater interactive surface area between the phenolic colloids and the aqueous liquid around them, making it easier for volatile phenols (oak, Brett, vegie aromas) to intercalate into the wine’s structure rather than being pushed up into the nose. Finally, shorter polyphenols are more stable and less likely to precipitate out, meaning enhanced ageworthiness.

This post is simply brilliant – informative and scientific – and exemplifies everything I love about wine.woot, winemaker interaction, and Clark Motherfucking Smith.

I was going to buy anyway, but I just wanted to chime in.

PetiteSirah · May 23, 2014, 9:16am

On another topic

Sure, you’ve got the idea. You can control the amount with shading. California winemakers tend to be pyrazine averse (I like to call them “pyranoid”), but a lot of world class Sauvignon Blanc in Bordeaux, Sancerre and New Zealand is grown with shaded clusters to enhance distinctiveness and dimensionality.

I didn’t mean to say that pyrazines are a defect, but simply to distinguish them from Cab Franc varietal herbal features.

For myself, right now I’m fighting the perception that Cab Franc is always vegetal and getting people to understand the possibilities, so Lake County fruit is perfect for me right now. The high altitude means lots of UV and no fog, and the rocky soils challenge the vine and open it up. But as we get past that chapter, I can see an emerging interest in the kind of wine you’re talking about - a pyrazine nostalgia movement, I guess. We’re already there with the SBs.

There was this lovely chilean sauv blanc I had a few years back that had a bit of the sharp citrus, but was so pyrazine-y that it actually tasted like jalapeño on the finish – not just bell pepper. Though that may have been my brain putting in a bit of the capsaicinoids from the pyrazines being EXACTLY like jalapeño instead of mere green bell peppers.

That was a tasty wine. Oddly, I tend not to like Chilean reds for exactly that same reason – too much pyrazine in them.

winesmith · May 23, 2014, 10:10am

In a proper cellar, a very long time. CF is not a big wine, but it really goes the distance. My '94 is just now blooming bright and generous, with no trace of oxidation. This one has at least as much potential.

winesmith · May 23, 2014, 10:25am

Here’s a weird trick to opening the aesthetic door to Cab Franc appreciation. I learned in the early ‘90s from a brilliant winemaker named Don Blackburn (who started Bernardus) that you can enhance a wine’s appeal by pairing it with the right music. In brief, wines are processed cognitively just like liquid music and carry emotional modalities. Just as there is happy music, sexy music and sorrowful music, wines are like that too. You can smooth the tannins of a big Cab Sauy playing dark, angry music like the Doors’ People Are Strange or Beethoven’s Fifth. These will also ruin your Pinot Noirs.

There’s lots more on this at http://www.postmodernwinemaking.com/wine-and-music. Everything in the environment affects the way a wine tastes. It’s pretty incredible.

Anyhow, here’s my favorite wine and music match. Sit back and enjoy this wine in the dark with something on fire (candles will work) and Bruce Springsteen’s Jungleland filling the room. You gotta trust me on this - it’s a stunning experience.

otolith · May 23, 2014, 10:26am

Let me know and we can ship together and I’ll pick it up for you.

winesmith · May 23, 2014, 10:30am

For those of you who enjoy this kind of discussion, you might want to take a look at my book Postmodern Winemaking http://www.postmodernwinemaking.com/books. It’s Wine and Spirits 2013 Book of the Year and chock full of these kinds of goodies.

coynedj · May 23, 2014, 10:39am

PM for you. I hope I can get things arranged!