Cabernet Franc Rising: Signs from Some of the World's Best Estates

Every year I visit a number of different wineries around the world. Typically I'll treat those visits individually, or perhaps group what I learn by appellation or region. But this year, reflecting on my visits, and what I've learned from all of them collectively, a noticeable trend has emerged. Cabernet Franc is becoming more important. It's not just one or two wineries telling me this, or wineries that are located in a certain region or even a certain country. Rather, it's multiple world-class producers in various countries and even multiple continents. In this video, I'll start out by sharing what I've learned, explain why it's happening, and then discuss what it means for wine collectors and wine enthusiasts. I hope you'll stick around for the takeaways, because this issue is actually one that I'm very excited about, since it helps to explain a problem that I've been having with some of wines that I've been tasting over the past couple years or so. We're going to start out in Italy, which I visited a few months ago. I went to Bogri for the first time, but the winery that I wanted to discuss is in nearby Bibona. Specifically, I visited Tenuta del Nicchio, which is the new winery that was founded by Lodovico Antonori and his daughter, Sofia. Lodovico Antonori was the original founder of Ornelia. Certainly one of Ornelia's claims to fame is the prestige label Masetto, which, with the exception of a couple outliers, has been 100% Merlot. Nevertheless, Lodovico and Sofia Antonori believe that Cabernet Franc is the future, and so their wines are far more inspired by Cheval Blanc than by nearby Masetto. In fact, their top wine, which is called Il Nicchio, is dominant in Cabernet Franc. The outstanding 2021 vintage of Il Nicchio, for example, is a whopping 95% Cabernet Franc and only 5% Merlot. This is so, despite the fact that their vineyards run right up against and even border some of the Ornelia vineyards that Lodovico used to farm for the Ornelia wines. Shifting gears to Napa Valley, I was in Napa Valley back in February to attend the premier Napa Valley auction. While I was there, I had the opportunity to taste a number of different barrel samples of some of the experimental wines that wineries and winemakers were making to sell at the auction. I was struck by the large number of wines that were either dominant or made exclusively from Cabernet Franc. This was a big change from prior years, and certainly a number of these wines were quite impressive and intriguing. A well-known winemaker that I was talking to during that visit explained that people are discovering that Cabernet Franc is thriving in some of the hillside and mountain vineyards in Napa Valley. The daytime temperatures don't get quite as warm there, and the nighttime temperatures stay a little bit warmer. These conditions allow the Cabernet Franc to ripen slowly and evenly and produce extremely high-quality Cabernet Franc with ample acidity and intriguing aromatics. I visited Continuum on Pritchard Hill, and they confirmed what this winemaker told me. Specifically, their top wine at Continuum just 10 years ago was only about 10% Cabernet Franc. More recently, however, the Cabernet Franc percentage has skyrocketed, and now Cabernet Franc makes up more than 40% of the blend, and there's almost as much Cabernet Franc in their top wine as there is Cabernet Sauvignon. This has increased the quality of the Continuum wines, and their wines have never been better. The case study at Vignevic in Chile was even more dramatic. There, winemaker Christian Vallejo had been making a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant Bordeaux blend for a number of years that was well-received and extremely enjoyable. But with the 2021 vintage, he went all-in on Cabernet Franc. In that vintage, the blend was more than 75% Cabernet Franc and only about 1 quarter Cabernet Sauvignon. The results speak for themselves. Vignevic's best vintage ever was 2021, and that wine was rewarded with a double 100 point score, which was the first 100 point score for either Christian Vallejo or Vignevic. Bordeaux has gotten the memo as well. Certainly on Bordeaux's right bank, in places like Saint-Emilion, Cabernet Franc has been a valuable component in blends for many, many years. Producers like Cheval Blanc, for example, have relied on it heavily. But other than a few outlier vintages, Cabernet Franc has not really been the dominant grape in the Cheval Blanc blend. Nevertheless, at a recent masterclass, I learned that even at Cheval Blanc, they have a long-term goal of making their plantings in the vineyard 55% Cabernet Franc and reducing the Merlot percentage to only about 40%, with another 5% being devoted to Cabernet Sauvignon. But what really struck home was the announcement by Chateau Pavie that the 2025 vintage would be the first vintage ever that was dominant in Cabernet Franc. Previously, every other vintage for Pavie had been Merlot dominant. And they didn't just make Cabernet Franc the dominant grape in 2025, it was a whopping 60% of the blend. So what is going on here, and why is this happening? Well, we need to take a step back and consider the characteristics of a couple grapes. First, with respect to Merlot, that's an early ripening grape that can accumulate sugar extremely quickly. As such, in hot vintages, and there's certainly been a number of hot vintages lately, you could have a high-alcohol wine with some pruney, dried fruit characteristics that a number of people find off-putting, including myself. In fact, on this channel, I previously revealed that my personal preference when it comes to Chateauneuf-du-Pape is to buy wines from cooler vintages because in some of the hotter vintages that get more critical acclaim, the Grenache-based wines can get extremely high in alcohol and also have that pruney characteristic that I don't enjoy. The same is true in Priorat, where I've found that due to some of the hot vintages there, I much prefer blends that have a higher percentage of Carignan than those that are Grenache-dominant. Disturbingly, I've found that the same was true when it came to some Super Tuscan wines. It took me a while to get to the bottom of this problem because there's such wide variation in the blends in Tuscany. Some Super Tuscan blends are dominant in Sangiovese or Cabernet Sauvignon and don't use much Merlot, where others are Merlot-dominant. And it turns out it was those with a substantial percentage of Merlot from hotter vintages that was causing the problem. Compared to Merlot, Cabernet Franc ripens slower and more gradually. It can retain more acidity and deliver a floral and savory lift while providing fine tannins with lower alcohol by volume. For this reason, it's no wonder that some producers have been leaning into Cabernet Franc and reducing the amount of Merlot in their blends, particularly in warmer vintages. To be sure, producers can and do take a number of steps in the vineyard to help mitigate the impact of heat on their Merlot. But with hotter vintages becoming more regular, I've found that a number of top estates have increased the quality of their overall wine by increasing the percentage of Cabernet Franc in the blend. With that by way of background, it's time for me to reveal my takeaways for wine collectors, the first of which is always the most important, and that is to make sure that you know your personal palate and preferences. It's great to rely on experts and critical recommendations, but unless you understand what you enjoy and your personal preferences, those recommendations won't mean much. Certainly everyone's preferences and tastes will vary, but in my case for example, it took me a number of years to realize that I didn't like that dried fruit or pruney characteristic that some wines displayed, and then also to figure out which wines were triggering that descriptor. Second, once you understand your personal preferences, it's definitely a good idea to make sure that you check the precise blend and the grape varieties that are included in each wine before you make a purchasing decision. One of the biggest mistakes that I see wine collectors and wine enthusiasts make is to rely on sweeping generalizations. For example, it's hard to say just broadly that you either love or hate Super Tuscan wines because the precise nature of the blend can vary so dramatically from wine to wine. You could have everything from a 100% Sangiovese to a Bordeaux blend that's dominant in Merlot and doesn't include any Sangiovese at all, or any other permutation that the producer chooses. For that reason, the better approach is always to know your own palate, which grape varieties you like most, and then to check to see if the blend for the particular wine that you're considering is something that would fit your personal preferences. If like me, you're sensitive to wines that have pruney or dried fruit characteristics, some things that I found useful include looking for more carnion-based wines in Priorat, looking for Grenache that either comes from cooler sites or, for example, from Shot Enough to Pop, wines that have a lower Grenache percentage and rely more heavily on more Ved. With respect to Bordeaux blends, certainly in warmer vintages going forward, I'll definitely keep an eye on the relative percentage of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, and also see if I can find any insights into what the producer is doing with respect to managing their Merlot. Keep in mind, however, that this is just a trend worth watching, and perhaps even the early stages of a trend. It's by no means a bright line rule. Merlot is absolutely a world-class grape, and I'm by no means recommending that people avoid it. Certainly when it comes to my own collection, I'm definitely not avoiding Merlot at all. Plenty of producers successfully manage heat stress in their vineyard and produce amazing world-class Merlot. The very traits that can work against Merlot when it's a substantial percentage of a top wine from a very hot vintage are also the same characteristics that can make it an extremely enjoyable wine and to help promote drinkability at an early stage, which is also extremely important to many consumers these days as well. As you can tell, given my legal background, I'm somewhat analytical. For that reason, I decided to write a book earlier this year on Napa Valley. It's called Napa Valley Decoded. To learn more, please be sure to check out the link in the description below, or watch this video that's linked above, where I describe this project in more detail.