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2015 CABERNET FRANC
Elizabeth's Vineyard

Dry Red Table Wine
Cases produced: 102
Alcohol: 11.9%
Total sulfite addition: 30 ppm
Grape: Cabernet franc
Soil: Shallow loam over shale
Harvest: October 2, 2015
Bottled: November 15, 2016

ELEVAGE: Hand picked grapes were foot crushed, stems and all, and put into one-ton bins to ferment. The grapes received once daily punchdowns for 18 days before being bucketed into the half-ton bladder press. Settled juice was pumped into old French and American oak barrels to finish fermentation which continued into September of 2016. In November the wine was racked off its lees and gravity bottled by hand without fining or filtration.

TASTING NOTE: 2015 Eminence Road - Cabernet Franc - Elizabeth's Vineyard - On the nose raspberry bramble, horse stable and crushed slate aromas give way to a mouthful of tart raspberry fruit, firm, fine grained tannin and a long shale drenched finish. Decant vigorously or give it a day of air for the full effect. Pair this wine with tangy goat cheese, lamb, or any kind of gamey ingredients you can find. Grouse? Venison? Boletes? Yes!

HYPERBOLE: Despite what you may have heard, winemaking is essentially 52% repetitive labor, 46% sales calls and only about 2% romance. One of the very few moments of real romance in the winery happens when the smell of a new fermentation fills the air. Two grapes in particular, gewurztraminer and cabernet franc, are especially pleasing to the nose and always demand attention even during the busiest days of harvest. This vintage of Elizabeth's Vineyard cabernet franc has managed to retain that freshness all the way into the bottle--the smell of meadow plants under foot, cool morning air, damp soil and ripe berries, it's all there and more. Aromas soar in every direction. It at once satiates and invigorates. There is spritz and saltiness and joy in this wine. It's the embodiment of "bottled alive" and drinking it transports one directly back to the vineyard where it was grown. Figuratively, of course.

ELIZABETH'S VINEYARD: Located in Hector, New York on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake, this twenty-seven acre vineyard is composed of shallow loam soil over shale on a slope leading to some of the lake's deepest waters. Among the pinot noir, cabernet franc and riesling, grower John Leidenfrost also maintains blocks of spur pruned cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay over a quarter century old. This vineyard's privileged exposure and thin, shale laden soil produces wine of great depth and backbone.



Elizabeth's Vineyard cabernet franc . . . or maybe it's merlot. Probably merlot.


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