Tom Doorley

At this time of year, even if the weather is not being very seasonal, my wine thoughts turn to grapes like Gamay, famed for Beaujolais but grown beyond that region, and Cabernet Franc, very widely grown and potentially more serious.

The reason is simple, I associate these grapes (and some others, I should add) with summery wines, reds that favour food and don’t shout too loudly about it. Wines, if you like, that are lighter and less extracted than many others. If you insist on heavily oaked Australian Shiraz or vanilla-scented, créme de cassis-style Chilean Cabernets, they will not be for you.

Cabernet Franc is, of course, seen as the slightly shabby cousin of the Cabernet

Sauvignon that is the main act in the great wines of the Médoc, although it does play a supporting rôle there. However, it should never be forgotten that the greatest wine of Saint-Emillion and one of the greatest in all of Bordeaux, Chateau Cheval-Blanc, is mainly Cabernet

Franc and quite light on the local hero, Merlot.

Cabernet Franc buds early and ripens early so it’s more useful in Saint-Emillion and Pomerol than Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s also less tannic and therefore can have a softening effect in the Bordelais blends. The grape migrated northwards and found a real niche around the Loire. The cooler climate here tends to accentuate what various authorities have described as its herbaceous characteristics: a certain green, leafy pungency, sometimes a suggestion of pencil shavings. Often a combination of all of these, rarely a ripe blackcurrant aroma.

At this stage it’s actually pretty hard to find a poor wine from, say, SaumurChampigny. And there’s something about those words — Saumur-Champigny — that resonate with me, suggesting summer, and a kind of rusticity combined with crispness and freshness. If you’re looking for an antidote to big reds, wines that seem almost thick on the palate, you could do a lot worse.

Cabernet Franc has a crispness and freshness