“Our cellar door customers just don’t know what to make of it.” A top winery told me that recently about its bottling of this country’s sixth-most widely planted red-wine variety, cabernet franc.
As a minority ingredient in many of New Zealand’s Bordeaux-style reds, cabernet franc lends a delicious softness and concentrated fruitiness to its blends with cabernet sauvignon and merlot. But cabernet franc need not always be cabernet sauvignon’s bridesmaid. The light-to-full-bodied reds of the Loire Valley, notably from Chinon and Bourgueil, reveal cabernet franc’s ability to produce fine wines in its own right.
How’s this for a fascinating technical detail? DNA analysis has shown cabernet franc is one of the two parent varieties of cabernet sauvignon (the other is sauvignon blanc). Cabernet franc is also a parent variety of merlot (the other is the obscure, nearly extinct magdeleine noire des Charentes).
I recently tasted 12 cabernet francs from New Zealand, the Loire Valley, California, South Africa and Western Australia. A favourite was The Boneline Amphitheatre Waipara Cabernet Franc 2019 (★★★★★, $64-$70, but now sold out.) Fragrant, dark and weighty, it has dense blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, revealing impressive elegance and complexity. Another standout was the invitingly fragrant, rich, finely textured Domaine de la Butte Bourgueil Mi-Pente 2020 (★★★★★, $88).
These New Zealand wines are currently on sale:
Smith & Sheth Cru Heretaunga Cabernet Franc 2021
★★★★★
Already delicious, this Hawke’s Bay red is deeply coloured and softly mouthfilling with rich blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours, nutty, savoury notes and excellent complexity and harmony. (13.5% alc/vol) $39
Te Kano Northburn Central Otago Cabernet Franc 2021
★★★★½
This dark, purple-flushed red is the region’s first cabernet franc. Impressively concentrated, it is boldly fruity with fresh, strong blackcurrant, plum and spice flavours and lots of youthful impact. (14% alc/vol) $55
Mission Reserve Gimblett Gravels Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Franc 2019
★★★★★
This elegant, youthful wine is full-bodied with deep, ripe blackcurrant, red-berry and spice flavours, a vague hint of herbs and the structure to mature well for several years. (13.6% alc/vol) $40
Rock Ferry The Corners Vineyard Marlborough Cabernet Franc 2020
★★★★½
Certified organic, this full-coloured red is mouthfilling, savoury and supple with strong, ripe, red-berry and plum flavours, hints of nutty oak and good complexity. (13.5% alc/vol) $50
Wine of the week
Askerne Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Franc 2021
★★★★½
This refined, ageworthy red was estate-grown and matured for a year in French oak barriques. Full-coloured with mouthfilling body, it has ripe, supple tannins and generous blackcurrant, red-berry and spice flavours. (14% alc/vol) $25-$29
