Boundary Breaks, 2023 Cabernet Franc, Finger Lakes, New York, USA
Boundary Breaks is the vision of Syracuse-native Bruce Murray, who returned to the Finger Lakes after a long career in business with the desire to make world class Riesling. He purchased a 120-acre farm near Lodi on the east side of Seneca Lake in 2007, and planted his first 11 acres of Riesling in 2009/2010. Seeing the suitability and potential for Cabernet Franc in their vineyards, the planted a mere 2/3 of an acre at the farm in 2013. As years have passed, it became apparent that Cabernet Franc was excellent choice for their site, both because of its cold hardiness as well as its ability to ripen consistently in all vintages to produce an elegant, cool-climate red wine. As such, Bruce has since ramped up his plantings of Cabernet Franc to 14 acres as of 2024, representing a little over a quarter of their total vineyard acreage. Today, Bruce and his wife Diana Lyttle are thoughtfully farming 50 acres of vines, and are supported by their vineyard team led by Vineyard Manager Kees Stapel, and in the cellar Dave Breeden has been making their Cabernet Franc since its inaugural vintage in 2017.
So the Finger Lakes AVA technically stretches across all of the 11 Finger Lakes, the majority of the viticultural activities are centred around 4 lakes, from west to east, Canandaigua Lake, Keuka Lake, Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake. And the vineyards around Keuka and Seneca Lakes account for nearly 90% of the vineyard acreage in the region. Cabernet Franc represents an important part viticultural landscape across the Finger Lakes and New York State as a whole. It is the most planted red vinifera variety with about 236 acres (95ha), and this represents about 46% of the 638 acres, 258 ha, of Cabernet Franc planted in the state.
In terms of the growing environment, the success of viticulture in the region can be attributed to the presence of the Finger Lakes themselves, but also Lake Ontario to the north. Seneca Lake is the largest and the deepest of the Finger Lakes, and its presence influences the growing environment of the vineyards planted around it in a number of ways. In the springtime, it helps to delay budbreak and reduce the risk of frost, during the summer it helps to reflect the sunshine into the vineyards helping with photosynthesis and ripening, in the fall, the heat that the lake accumulates during the growing season then helps to extend the growing season, which is particularly important for longer season varieties like Cabernet Franc. Finally, because Seneca Lake never freezes, it radiates the warmth accumulated during the season, moderating conditions and protecting the vines from winter damage in extreme cold conditions. Generally speaking the Finger Lakes climate would be considered cool continental, and with on average 190-205 growing degree days depending on where you are.
There is significant variation in microclimates from vineyard to vineyard, which is heavily influenced by both the distance from Lake Ontario and the proximity and orientation to Seneca Lake. Vineyards on the west side of Seneca Lake have more east-facing exposures receiving more of the morning sunshine, that is they get sun earlier in the day, which can be beneficial for reducing disease pressure, while the vineyards on the east side of the lake have more west-facing exposures will have more sunshine hours per day during the growing season and receive the stronger afternoon sunshine, which can be beneficial for ripening.
In terms of soils across the Finger Lakes, what we have are glacially-derived soils that can vary widely in terms of depth and texture depending on where you are. These soils are typically derived from the limestones and shales of the underlying bedrock, and have varying amounts of gravels, silts, sands and clays, but are generally well-draining and ideally suited for viticultural.
So, today's wine is taking us to the east side of Seneca Lake, around the village of Lodi, which is about 30km, or 17mi, south of town of Geneva, so we're more or less in the middle of the eastern side of Seneca Lake. This is from about 8.3 acres of Cabernet Franc vines, so a little over 3 hectares, that are planted in a few different blocks, all situated at around 750 ft or 228m above sea level on slope of moderate steepness with a full west-facing exposure, and the vines are only about 800m from the shoreline. So we have ideal conditions here with the west-facing exposure allowing the vines to receive the stronger, warmer afternoon sunshine, with the slope beneficial drainage and air movement coupled with the parcels position close to the lake providing ideal moderating conditions, reducing the risk of frost, lengthening the growing season and giving the Cabernet Franc more time to fully ripen. The vines were planted between 2013 and 2022 with clone 214, and the soils here are Cazenovia silt-loam, which are deeper, with a higher proportion of clay.
With respect to viticultural practices, Bruce and his team strive to work within each individual block to assess vine's balance in terms of yield and canopy, taking care to perform leaf removal earlier around the fruiting zone to improve ventilation and access to sunshine, as well as hedging the canopy where needed to balance the yields and promote more of the vine's energy towards ripening the fruit. As of the moment, they have not needed to do much green harvesting from their Cabernet Franc parcels. Finally, it is important to note that the Boundary Breaks Cabernet Franc has almost always had some percentage of Merlot and/or Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. In the US, varietally labelled wines are permitted to have up to 25% other varieties blended in and still be labelled as a single-varietal wine. This percentage for Boundary Break is constantly in evolution, and one of much discussion for Bruce, his team, and also getting feedback from customers. For the 2023 vintage, the final assemblage they landed on was 87% Cabernet Franc, with the addition of 13% Merlot sourced from established grower John Wagner.
From a winemaking perspective, the fruit is machine harvested, fermentation takes place in stainless steel with temperature control and selected yeasts, and with the maximum fermentation temperature reaching about 32C. Their approach to extractions is gentle, as the berries from their Cabernet Franc tend to be a little smaller than average, with a higher skin to juice ratio, so they do one pump-over per day during the active fermentation, followed by a pump-over every other day for the duration, with the time on skins being around 27 days. Following the post-fermentation maceration, the free run wine and press wine are blended and then aged in older, neutral oak barrels for 8 months, after which they determine the final assemblage and then the wine is bottled.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Boundary Breaks
Region: New York State
Sub-Region: Finger Lakes (Seneca Lake)
Soils: Cazenovia silt-loam
Assemblage: 87% Cabernet Franc, 13% Merlot
Alcohol: 13.5%
