100% Cabernet franc; Idiot’s Grace Vineyard in Mosier, Oregon; planted 2004; Columbia Gorge AVA; 415 cases produced; grown volcanic ash and loess over old flood deposits; brought up in steel and veteran barrels; ABV 13.7%.
Cabernet franc has found its voice in Mosier. It is, of course, Cabernet-y, but we say that with caveats. The word “Cabernet” on its own will bring to mind the big, fruit-bomb Cabernet Sauvignons of Napa, or, if you aren’t so American, a purely sensuous appeal of cedar, leather, cigar boxes, and ripe fruit. Cabernet franc is the Oregon to Cabernet Sauvignon’s California. Genetically the parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, on a spiritual level Cabernet franc is its cool, anti-authoritarian relation. It is delicate and perfumey when not pushed to Napa ripeness. The body is never brought to the massiveness and tannin of the other Cabernet, so it maintains an herbaceous quality, but this herbaceousness has more to do with flowers than it does wood.
We have made several vintages since 2019, and as a wine like this ages, it takes on the relative character of bone china to an earlier stoneware. There is now a restrained animation at play; its baby fat is gone. It moves like a stream across the palate, grippy in just the right way, with modesty.
