“Great Wine Is About Nuance, Surprise, Subtlety, Expression, Qualities That Keep You Coming Back for Another Taste. Rejecting
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“Great wine is about nuance, surprise, subtlety, expression, qualities that keep you coming back for another taste. Rejecting a wine because it is not big enough is like rejecting a book because it is not long enough, or a piece of music because it is not loud enough.” - Kermit Lynch Cabernet Franc in South Africa Lizette Tolken 31 January 2012 Dissertation submitted to the Cape Wine Academy in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the diploma of Cape Wine Master. DECLARATION I, Lizette Tolken, declare that this research report is my own, unaided work. It is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the diploma of Cape Wine Master to the Cape Wine Academy. It has not been submitted before for qualification of examination in this or any other educational organization. ___________________ Lizette Tolken Date: 31 January 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am very grateful to the winemakers who devoted their time and energy to answer my questionnaires and to Andy Roediger for assisting me with the phenolic ripeness aspect, and providing me with samples. SUMMARY In Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc is a minor grape (at third place in the trio), but it is used in most blends. One of the world’s most expensive wines, Château Cheval Blanc, contains a high proportion (almost 70%) of Cabernet Franc. It is valuable for its violet and spice aromas, and finesse, which it can contribute to a blend. Together with Merlot, it dominates in St.-Émilion on Bordeaux’s Right Bank. The Loire’s red wines, made predominantly from Cabernet Franc, are still largely underrated outside of France, perhaps because they are typically characterized by delicacy, rather than power. Cabernet Franc can make wines of great subtlety and the varietal bottling is promising. However, general wine consumers do not know much about this varietythey expect it to be the same as Cabernet Sauvignon, or they confuse the two. The majority of wine drinkers have probably never enjoyed a Cabernet Franc, and only a minority probably really know it. Cabernet Franc is in fact the original ‘Cabernet’ grape, being the parent of Cabernet Sauvignon (a cross of Sauvignon Blanc with Cabernet Franc). It ripens earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, making it ideal for cool climates. Fascinating single-varietal Cabernet Franc wines are now made in South Africa (where it is currently the 14th most planted grape variety and the number of producers is growing (although it appears that the number of hectares planted have slightly decreased over the last two years). Cabernet Franc is, however, not an easy variety: it grows vigorously; clonal selection should be done very carefully; and green, grassy flavours should be avoided. Overcropping and underexposure tend to accentuate the vegetative characters. The marketing of the wines is difficult and the wines are often expensive. It is a wine for the connoisseur. Cabernet Franc is a very good translator of terroir (the French term for the sum entity and effect of a vineyard’s soil, slope, orientation to the sun, and elevation, plus every nuance of climate: rainfall, wind velocity, frequency of fog, cumulative hours of sunshine, average high temperatures, average low temperatureseach vineyard having its own terroir). The terroir is of utmost importance: Cabernet Franc does particularly well on gravelly soil, and produces heavier, fuller bodied wines when grown in sandy, chalky soils. In the Loire, grapes grown on gravel terraces versus grapes grown on tuffeau slopes produce wines showing terroir based differences. In South Africa, Cabernet Franc is grown in a variety of terroirs, and with great success on well-drained, medium-to-low potential soils containing chalk and limestone. Harvesting at peak ripeness is paramount. Phenolic ripeness testing is a valuable tool available to the Cabernet Franc grower for assessing optimum levels of ripeness and tannin maturity. It confirms the importance of choice of soils. It shows that ripeness of Cabernet Franc is easily achievable in South Africa, and that South Africa can make excellent quality Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Franc’s ‘liveliness’ (Karen MacNeil describes a wine with this attribute as “kinetically alive in the mouth”) makes it an excellent wine to enjoy with food. It is more food-friendly and earlier approachable than Cabernet Sauvignon, and can be paired with a wide variety of dishes. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: WHICH CABERNET? 6 CHAPTER 3: THE IMPORTANCE OF CABERNET FRANC 8 CHAPTER 4: HISTORY AND ORIGIN 10 CHAPTER 5: WHERE CABERNET FRANC IS GROWN GLOBALLY 13 CHAPTER 6: IDENTIFYING THE VARIETY 20 CHAPTER 7: UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WINES MADE FROM CABERNET FRANC 23 CHAPTER 8: THE IMPORTANCE OF TERROIR 31 CHAPTER 9: PRODUCTION IN SOUTH AFRICA 35 CHAPTER 10: PRODUCERS 43 CHAPTER 11: THE FRANC RANGERS OF SOUTH AFRICA 48 CHAPTER 12: CABERNET FRANC AS A BLENDING PARTNER 50 CHAPTER 13: CABERNET FRANC IN THE VINEYARD 54 CHAPTER 14: PHENOLIC RIPENESS 63 CHAPTER 15: CABERNET FRANC IN THE WINERY 69 CHAPTER 16: PERFORMANCE OF SA CABERNET FRANC IN RECENT WINE COMPETITIONS/JUDGING 73 CHAPTER 17: THE MARKETING OF CABERNET FRANC 75 CHAPTER 18: AT WHAT PRICE? 81 CHAPTER 19: ENJOYING CABERNET FRANC 83 CHAPTER 20: CONCLUSION 86 LIST OF REFERENCES 89 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire: Single Variety Cabernet Franc Producers 95 Appendix 2: Questionnaire: South African Bordeaux Blend Producers 97 Appendix 3: The Project Cabernet Franc Protocol: Summary of Recommendations 98 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND Cabernet Franc is defined in The Oxford Companion to Wine as “fine French black grape variety, much blended with and overshadowed by the more widely planted Cabernet Sauvignon”. It is one of the world’s 20 most planted varieties for wine, but it is only in Anjou-Saumur and Touraine in the Loire valley of France, on the right bank of the Gironde estuary in the Bordeaux region of France, and in parts of northeast Italy where plantings are more significant than Cabernet Sauvignon.¹ According to Platter in South African Wines (2000) “Cabernet Franc now appears more and more on the Cape wine stage as a solo performer, often to rousing applause”.² It is common knowledge that Cabernet Franc is used throughout Bordeaux in blends with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (and small quantities of Petit Verdot and Malbec). It is often said that this ‘supporting’ or seasoning role it plays in Bordeaux (and in many countries where it is used as part of the ‘Bordeaux blend’) is its main claim to fame.³ The big names in Loire reds, Chinon and Bourgueil, are however pure Cabernet Franc. The purpose of this study is to look at various aspects of the unique Cabernet Franc grape variety, both in South Africa and globally, and then to consider Cabernet Franc as a single variety. The main objective is to review the status of Cabernet Franc as a single variety both globally and in South Africato look at its past, and to determine whether any changes in winemaking style, growing practices and winemaking techniques have taken place with this variety. When reading articles with titles like “Cabernet Franc: The Underrated Jewel of the Loire”,⁴ “The Sad Plight of Cabernet Franc, an Underrated Grape” (Mike Steinberger)⁵ and “Terroir Denied: Give Cabernet Franc a Chance”,⁶ one cannot help but to sympathize with this age-old variety. What is it about this grape variety that invokes this underdog image? It has even been 2 described as “the red vinifera dog that wouldn’t hunt”.⁷ Clearly, many people love this variety and would like to see it in its full glory, delivering to its fullest capacity. There is, therefore, sadness and disappointment in Cabernet Franc not yet tapping its full potential. In her book Vines, Grapes and Wines, Jancis Robinson commences the chapter on Cabernet Franc as follows: “Just as Pinot Meunier is regarded as a rather ignoble form of Pinot Noir, so Cabernet Franc languishes in the shadow of the much more revered Cabernet Sauvignon. This is considerably fairer to Pinot Meunier than it is to Cabernet Franc”.⁸ Then again, in his article Let’s be Franc: the Quiet Invasion of Cabernet Franc, Larry Walker states that the pendulum might be swinging in Cabernet Franc’s favour, although he admits that “it isn’t everybody’s red wine” and that he is still trying to find out why Cabernet Franc is not more popular.⁹ Tim Atkin, Master of Wine commented on Schiller’s blog on 11 January 2010 that Cabernet Franc is a grape variety to watch: “all too often seen as a minor, blending grape, used to add perfume and finesse”. He admits that Cabernet Franc does work as a solo performer in the Loire valley, stating that “(i)ts freshness could be an asset in the future, as could its ability to mature gracefully”.¹⁰ In Cathy Marston’s article (‘Is Franc the Future for Cape Wine?’)¹¹ she states that “fascinating single varietal Cabernet Franc wines are now made in South Africa, showing individuality, elegance and varietal typicity, and its important role in the South African blend cannot be underestimated”. She concludes that the future is, indeed, “Franc”.¹¹ According to Neil Pendock (referring to and describing the Mooiplaas Cabernet Franc 2005 as wonderfully clean with intense perfumed fruit flavours) Franc is the Robert Downey Junior of Cape Wine“such exotic potential that once tasted makes you wonder why it is not universally acclaimed”.¹² 3 In Michael Fridjhon’s words in the June 2011 Wine magazine:¹³ “There is now increasing evidence that the Cape hasin Cabernet Francanother potentially world-class performer in its vineyards. It is not an easy variety, and the fact that the pure Old World expressions of it are produced in the Loireand are something of an acquired taste even among masochistshas done little to enhance its international standing”.¹³ According to him, the image and reputation of Cabernet Franc has unfortunately been sorely compromised by much of what comes from the Loire.