by Jenise » Tue May 22, 2018 2:22 pm
Dork night, all blind as usual.
NV Cave Maurice Bonnamy Crémant de Loire Brut Cabernet Franc
Fruit from Saumur and Anjou. Very very pale pink, tiny pin-prick bubbles, crisp fruit. Yum. OFS, and outstanding QPR as well.
2011 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Grézeaux Cabernet Franc
Tons of sulfur on first opening, but it fades somewhat in the glass. Great blend of juicy, plummy fruit and herbs.
2014 Charles Joguet Chinon Cuvée Terroir Cabernet Franc
Vitamin nose followed by huckleberry and sandalwood. Very complex and yet biggish enough that a show of hands among these Euro-palate tasters indicated most thought it a very European styled Pacific Northwest wine. Not so! Impressive.
2013 Rasa Vineyards Cabernet Franc QED Axiom of Choice Walla Walla Valley
Beautifully balanced, fruit/complexity/acid/tannins--everything just right for a new world CF. Excellent.
2014 Bonair Cabernet Franc Puryear Vineyard Rattlesnake Hills
Major brett on the nose, rustic palate, fades quickly. Junk.
2000 Château Puygueraud Cuvée George Bordeaux Côtes de Francs Red Bordeaux Blend (35% CF)
Tobacco, leather, canned cherries and gun metal--showing well and at peak. Played unexpectedly well off of some pan-seared shisito peppers.
2013 Spring Valley Vineyard Cabernet Franc Katherine Corkrum Walla Walla Valley
Berry fruit, mushrooms, herbs, orange peel and other things. However a brown paper bag note brought disagreement about corked or not. I voted 'not'. Very good.
2004 Robert Sinskey Vineyards Cabernet Franc Vandal Vineyard Carneros
Obviously new world and aged, it's a beautifully integrated wine with notes of celery, oil-cured olive and a luxurious, silky mouthfeel. Wow, another WOTN.
2012 Château de Fosse-Seche Saumur Eolithe Cabernet Franc
Great complexity and mouthfeel with spice, celery, red apple, and flint. Great value at $20 retail. Loved it.
2013 Tero Estates Cabernet Franc Windrow Vineyard Walla Walla Valley
Chocolatey, quite sweet but more like artificial sweetener than real sugar, ripe and goopy, drinks like an Orin Swift wine (yuck).
2013 Chappellet Cabernet Franc Napa Valley
Gotta love Vic for bringing the least expected wine of the night. Big oak nose, blueberry and coffee, fairly concentrated with some extract. 14.9% alcohol, too. Those don't usually add up what I like and expect from CF, but this is Napa CF and a different animal--hard not to be impressed.
2016 Savage Grace Wines Cabernet Franc Copeland Vineyard Rattlesnake Hills
Light bodied with more strange cardboardy vegetal flavors than fruit. And while I realize that Michael's wines usually need more time after release to show well, this bottle seemed to have a problem--will call it flawed.
2015 Whidbey Island Winery Cabernet Franc Yakima Valley
Very little acid. Cocoa and graham crackers for fruit, tannins shut things down. Clunky. A surprise, I'd liked this winery's CF a lot in the past.
2013 Andrew Will Cabernet Franc
Shows more ripe sweetness than complexity, and it lacks brightness/acidity. Might be asleep. Nonetheless, I was disappointed, I quite liked another bottle a year ago.
2016 Walla Walla Vintners Cabernet Franc Columbia Valley
Great new label, big improvement. Fruit forward but sturdy, there's power here in the good new world ripeness. Very enjoyable.
2015 Cave de Saumur Saumur-Champigny Les Vignoles Cabernet Franc
Red roses, strawberry, and enough malo to give it a sweet milkshake finish. Blind, would have guessed this to be domestic.
2012 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses Cabernet Franc
Great nose, highly aromatic and complex, balanced/everything just right, lots of class, my WOTN and probably everybody else's, only flaw a slightly subdued finish but that will fix itself with more bottle age.
2017 Isenhower Cellars Cabernet Franc Rosé Columbia Valley
Red apple skin nose and very simple on the palate. Bland.
2011 Marc Brédif Chinon Cabernet Franc
Lean and leafy--a bit short on fruit. Almost no tannins. Drink up.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov