San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Savory Cab Franc is a walk in the woods
Welcome to Wine of the Week ,a new series in which Chronicle wine critic Esther Mobley recommends a delicious bottle that you should be drinking right now. Recently, she highlighted an electrifying Oregon Riesling. Check for a new installment every Wednesday at sfchronicle.com/wine.
The wine in my glass smells like winter on the West Coast. The flavors and aromas are of pine needle, rainedon soil, tree bark, citrus peel. It’s got that irresistible quality that I associate with the air during a January hike through the redwoods or a walk along a foggy Pacific beach: freshness.
This is Lang & Reed’s 2017 North Coast Cabernet Franc, and it’s a beautiful example of a Cabernet Franc that stays true to its varietal signature while also expressing a distinctive NorCal spirit. It has a lot of the same herbal, floral qualities found in the Cabernet Francs from Chinon, in France’s Loire Valley, widely considered a benchmark for this wine type. But as much as the Lang & Reed feels inspired by France, it also oozes California. Lang & Reed has long been one of Napa Valley’s iconoclastic producers, the rare winery focused on Cabernet Franc rather than Napa’s cash cow, Cabernet Sauvignon. As their names might suggest, the two grape varieties are kin: Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc are Cabernet Sauvignon’s genetic parents. But where Cabernet Sauvignon, especially when grown in Napa, can be fullbodied, opulent and fruity, Cabernet Franc is lighter, subtler and rougherhewn. It tends to be savory rather than sweet, herbal rather than fruity, rustic rather than polished.
Tracey and John Skupny, the couple behind Lang & Reed, are veterans of Napa’s wine industry. They started off as somms, worked for wellknown wineries including Spottswoode and NiebaumCoppola (now Inglenook) and in 1993 began making wines that stood in defiance of the Cabernet Sauvignons that surrounded them. (The winery is named for the Skupny sons, Lang and Reed.) Since then, they’ve consistently made excellent Cab
Franc that stays true to their own unique style. They make just two types of wine: Cab Franc and Chenin Blanc, the predominant red and white grape of the Loire Valley.
At $29 (the price varies by a few dollars depending on the store), the North Coast Cab Franc is Lang & Reed’s entrylevel red, the gateway to its other Cabernet Francs that are more geographically specific. About twothirds of the North Coast is composed of grapes grown in Lake County, with the rest from Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley and a pinch of Napa Valley. Lang & Reed also makes a Cab Franc called TwoFourteen that’s entirely from Napa’s Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard ($85), and recently has released some library wines ($125) to showcase how gracefully Cab Francs can age.
But this 2017 North Coast bottling is a fine place to start, especially for Cabernet Franc newbies. The grape’s hallmark green bell pepper note is present, mingling with lavender. It’s got the tannin and structure to stand up to a chilly winter night, but still has nimble energy and zippy acidity. I drank it alongside flank steak with chimichurri, and the combination of grilled meat with bright, tangy, greenherbpacked sauce proved to be a pleasant echo of the wine’s own flavors.
Buy the wine from Lang & Reed’s website or at the following Bay Area shops: Bacchus & Venus, Back Room Wines, Bottle Barn, Brown’s Valley Market, Calistoga Wine Shop, Canyon Market, Draeger’s (San Mateo), Gary’s Wine, Legit Provisions, Mill Valley Market, Nielsen Brothers, Oakville Grocery, Oliver’s (Stony Point), PlumpJack, Prima, Robert’s of Woodside, Sunshine Foods, United Market (San Anselmo and San Rafael locations), Vintage Wine Merchants and Weimax.