Decanterberry Tales - A Willamette Valley Wine Blog - cabernetfranc tag

Jean-Maurice Raffault, Chinon, Rouge, 2005

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:20:30 GMT

We don't often drink Loire valley wines (France), so this was fun to venture off the beaten track. Apparently the Chinon region is Cabernet Franc (with only up to 10% Cabernet Sauvignon). So, it's Cab Franc.

The nose was squash, stems, canned cherry pie filling, raspberry snuff, rhubarb, parsley (subtle), and chrysanthemum. The taste was prune (but hard to distinguish really), salad (yeah, I was tasting a salad, seriously), carrot celery juice, green olive, black cherry and raisin. And we're serious about that green olive, for it returns in the finish. But it quickly dissapates. A bit later, the finish had a pretty strong stem taste. Yep, pretty bitter, but not so much as to ruin it.

Cost:

Rating: 6.0

Niebaum-Coppola Estate Wines, Cabernet Franc, 1997

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:16:39 GMT

We had this bottle right after the Ken Wright, Shea 06 -- a hard act to follow. But this one really stood its ground. Cab Franc? Really? Yep, this was very good.

The nose was wild: bark, vegetable, mushroom, spice, pepper, nutmeg, asparagus, moss, clove and tobacco. Yeah, that's a lot of aroma. The taste was mainly plum, with nutmeg, pepper, blackberry, and artichoke. The flavor was really evenly split three ways: berry, spice and earth/vegetable. The finish was long and spicy: pepper and nutmeg, along with that slight apple dryness, and bark.

Some of the flavors reminds me of a Cab (perhaps I drink too much Pinot), but the body is definitely thinner. Yet I wouldn't say it's thin, especially after drinking a Pinot. I kept wanting to smell my fingers as I was drinking this: it's just so strongly nutmeg and tobacco. A memorable wine for sure.

Cost:

Rating: 8.5

Inniskillin, Cabernet Franc, Ice Wine, 2006

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:23:28 GMT

The Canadians have a very eclectic wine industry. They try a lot of things off the beaten path. And this is no exception.

It smells like an ice wine, but you wouldn't guess from the smell that it was a red. It definitely has that super honey aroma. But while it might smell like a Sauternes, the flavors were something completely different. The taste is a trio: rhubarb, strawberry, and watermelon. The body was a bit more syrupy than I would have liked, yet it wasn't ruined in this regard either. The finish returned to where we started: honey, and just a hint of mint.

Definitely an interesting find. It worked well. As I said, it was a tad more syrupy that I like, but overall, it was a nice desert wine. And yummy.

Cost: ($22 for a very small glass)

Rating: 8.0