Local Cab Franc Terroir Musings

A bunch of random thoughts on Santa Barbara Cab Franc. Go!

- Foxen Vineyards' estate vineyard, the Tinaquaic Vineyard, consists of three varietals: Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet Franc. Seems like an unlikely trio juxtaposing Burgundy, the Northern Rhone and the Loire Valley south-east of Santa Maria. I haven't tried any of these Foxen wines, but their story of dry farmed vines grown above the canyon floor in sandy clay soil is pretty compelling. If the weather in this section of the valley is moderated by the coastal fog, this vineyard is thus prime territory for growing grapes such as Chardonnay, Syrah and Cabernet Franc that flourish in cooler climates. I guess I'll have to give at least one of these Foxen wines a try to see if they work out as well in practice as they do in my mind.

- Along the lines of pairing cool climate grapes, I'm going to propose another location for Cabernet Franc: Santa Rita Hills. This is Chardonnay and Syrah heaven (sound familiar?) due to a very pronounced cool, coastal influence. Now, everything begins with Pinot and ends with Noir in Santa Rita Hills. But if Cab Franc were grown in an area with sufficient sun exposure and allowed to mature slowly during the growing season, perhaps the results would be compelling. The biggest problem with Cab Franc in the region is excessive alcohol, and reducing sugar accumulation with lower temperatures could be a good approach. It's no coincidence that some of the best local Cab Franc I've tasted has been from the similarly cool Los Alamos area adjacent to Santa Ynez and Santa Rita Hills.

- Which brings me to those chalky white hillsides in the Santa Rita Hills. These consist of diatomaceous earth. At first I wondered if this was related to limestone, but limestone is mostly Calcium Carbonate. Diatomaceous earth is made of tiny, prehistoric sea creatures that are chemically heavy on Silicon Dioxide. The best Cabernet Franc terroirs in the Loire are limestone based. But the same might be said of Pinot Noir vineyards in Burgundy. Perhaps silica-based soils are good for both? It's probably not a coincidence Chinon is nearly due west of Nuits-Saint-George. By this logic, indeed, someone should throw a few million dollars at a white hillside via a Cab Franc planting in Santa Rita Hills.

This is all speculation on my part, of course. I'm no geologist, nor am I am ampelographer or enologist. But I am a Cab Franc partisan.

Another Santa Ynez Trip

I haven't followed up with notes from Paso Robles despite there being some truly worthwhile words to be written with respect to producers like Villa Creek and Caparone. And yet I'm already out tasting again. This time it's another run through Santa Ynez.

We hit Foxen Vineyards for a second go-round, this time before the Happy Hour hordes descended. The initial impression stands: ripe, generous and well-made. Their 2006 Block 8 Bien Nacido Pinot Noir was the wine of the day due to its curiously French aromatics juxtaposed with rich California fruit flavors. The aromas were a mix of floral and funky "forest floor" smells with just a bit of ripe red fruit showing through as well. Good acidity produced a suitable balance and a long finish. Although there's no subtlety, this is just an alluring wine that I'd even dare suggest is worth its $54 price tag if you have the means. I suspect we tasted from an especially great bottle of a very good wine, but those are indeed the most memorable wines.

Foxen also managed to put together a rare 16% alcohol wine that held together, the 2006 Williamon-Dore Syrah. While there's no mistaking the viscosity of the ethanol and the depth of extract, it's not a hot or awkward wine. In fact, it's effusive in its bouquet and seamless on the palate. I'd still classify this as a cocktail wine, but it's one of the best entries in the genre I've encountered. I do wonder, though, if there's any point to aging a wine that is so youthfully exuberant and delicious. Meanwhile, their whites were wonderfully crisp and their Mourvedré rose showed a layer of earthiness that's not often found in pink wines. There's a real diversity of wines being produced by Foxen, all of which are well-made.

While I'm impressed with Foxen and their Bien Nacido Pinot Noir topped my list on the day, I once again have to come back to Longoria Wines as my personal favorite. Top to bottom, Longoria is the best I've come across in Santa Ynez. I can only hope that the Sea Smoke band wagoners don't learn of Longoria's Fe Ciega vineyard, because Longoria is just toeing the "affordable luxury" line as it is. With Longoria's multi-cuvee approach to his various Pinot Noirs, I get the sense he has a certain French ideology towards terroir and his wine in general. There are blends for early drinking, and there are blends for aging. And virtually every wine has a good acidic backbone leading to a fresh juiciness that leavens the fruit and alcohol in his larger framed wines. Where Foxen's wines lean towards the Parker style of excess, Longoria's always seem to hit that magic balance between California fruit and European structural balance. All of Longoria's 2007 Pinot Noirs in particular are superb, and the 2006 Fe Ciega Pinot Noir seems structured enough to evolve from its current embryonic state into a wine of tremendous nuance and complexity.

Although Foxen and Longoria differ stylistically, there is one commonality worth noting: they've both been making wine in the region for quite a while. That's always something to keep in mind with so many wealthy hobbyists jumping into the wine making game with much enthusiasm, but little experience. There's something to be said in terms of evolution, both of the individual sort via experience gained over decades and survival of the fittest.

Pinot like Syrah? Or Pinot like Grenache?

While tasting an interesting and delicious blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedré (60%-30%-10%), I couldn't help but think it was like a Pinot Noir on steroids. Grenache tends towards a true red color instead of the deep purple of Syrah, and its fruit profile also tends towards red fruit like cherry and raspberry (at least with the younger vine versions of the varietal). This wine in particular had a good bit of earthy and savory elements, perhaps from the Mourvedré or the fermentation techniques. The end result was a blend with the qualities of an very ripe, yet complex Pinot Noir that nonetheless carried its weight more gracefully than a Pinot of that size.

This has me thinking a bit. Even the most powerful of Power Pinots is not likely to be mistaken for Syrah, but it's common to say Power Pinot tastes like Syrah. Of course there are similarities that warrant the comparison, like black fruit flavors and copious tannins. But my thinking is that jammier high alcohol Pinot really has more in common with Grenache than Syrah because of the fruit profile. The comparison to Syrah becomes even more tenuous when the Pinot in question is over-oaked. Syrah is not a varietal that benefits from oak in the same way that Cabernet does, in my opinion. It's already so well-rounded that the oak unbalances the wine, whereas oak seems to complement Cabernet that's not overripe. The overroaked Pinot is, well, just overoaked.

Maybe I'm just overthinking this. A little hyperbole--who spiked the Pinot with Syrah?!?--enhances the impact of the statement. But I think most of these bigger-styled Pinot Noirs have more in common with Grenache-heavy Rhone blends than New World Syrah.

TN: Dr. Jebediah Drinkwell's 2007 Meritage

Although I usually avoid bottles with catchy labels, I couldn't resist picking up a bottle of Dr. Jebediah Drinkwell's 2007 Meritage at Trader Joe's. The primary reason was the blend: 60% Cabernet Franc, 27% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Malbec and 1% Petit Verdot. The producer is labeled as the Central Coast Wine Wearhouse, and I suspect this is wine left over from another project or a failed experiment that didn't fit into a blend.

Unfortunately, this wine does not deliver. The aromas are muted and show mostly oak spice. More importantly, the wine is utterly deficient in acidity. It's so flabby, it drinks like grape juice. There's nothing off-putting in this wine and it's easy to drink other than being youthfully tannic. But there's no balance. To quote a famous wine movie character, this wine is "hollow, flabby and overripe," not to mention reminiscent of the equally mediocre Happy Canyon 2007 Chukker. In fact the blend is eerily similar to the Chukker; could this be a Chukker in Dr. Drinkwell's clothing?

Not recommended as I think Two Buck Chuck is better balanced at a fourth the price.

Score: 75-79
Price: $9 from Trader Joe's

A new Jay Miller controversy?

Three months ago, Dr. Vino broke a story questioning the impartiality of Jay Miller's reviews published by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. The issue was centered upon the appropriateness of Miller accepting hospitality from importers and producers when reviewing their wines, particularly when Parker's own policy is to pay his own way. Miller's tendency to rate a surprising quantity of wines highly no doubt added fuel to the fire. Whether or not Miller actually accepted gifts in return for positive reviews, there was still an appearance of impropriety.

Fresh on the heels of this public black eye, Miller is now caught up in an ugly incident where it appears a producer pulled a bait and switch with a wine he rated at 96 points, the 2005 Sierra Carche. Message boards here, here and here are discussing the likelihood that the wine Miller reviewed was substantially different than the wine imported into the US. While it seems unlikely Miller was involved beyond tasting the wine, his tendency to taste under conditions determined by importers certainly exposes him to ugly situations like this one. He certainly didn't help himself by sitting on a bottle of this wine a collector asked him to re-taste for nearly a year.

The emerging story seems to be that the producer bottled multiple lots, with one of the later runs being vastly inferior to the original wine Miller tasted. Adding to the intrigue, apparently there are bottles numbered XXXX out of 20,000 and XXXX out of 16,000, while the importer claims 20,000 bottles produced. Something certainly seems fishy here, though perhaps there's a sensible explanation for the bad bottles and non-standard math.

The moral of the story: don't buy on points! The wine in question here seems to be a blend cooked up by a marketing group in partnership with a Spanish producer. In all likelihood, the label/brand was made first, then Parkerized (or perhaps Millerized?) wine was contracted to fill the bottles. If there's no vineyard source known and the producer has no history or a reputation to uphold, how do you know what's actually going into the bottles that aren't presented directly to a critic over a nice business dinner?