Leah Jørgensen Cellars, 2018 Cabernet Franc, Southern Oregon AVA, Oregon, USA
While Cabernet Franc represents a small piece of the Oregon viticultural landscape, there is no individual that is more passionate and committed to the grape variety than Leah Jorgensen. As the state's only Cabernet Franc specialist, her love of the grape blossomed when working in wine sales in Washington DC when she was exposed to the great Loire Valley Cabernet Francs of the portfolios of Louis Dressner and others.
When she moved to Oregon in 2009 to embrace her familial roots and take up winemaking, she chose to embrace Cabernet Franc as her star variety because she could source high quality fruit at a significantly lower cost than in-demand, highly competitive varieties like Pinot Noir. She launched Leah Jorgensen Cellars in 2011, and today she makes several examples of Cabernet Franc every vintage, including a rosé, blanc de franc and also some single-vineyard expressions in addition to her flagship bottling which we are looking at today.
So, what does the Cabernet Franc picture in Oregon look like. Of course, we all known that Pinot Noir leads the way representing about 59% of all planted acreage in 2020, at just over 23,500ha. Currently there is only 343ha of Cabernet Franc planted in the state, less than 1% of plantings, most of which is planted in Southern Oregon, which will be the focus of our terroir deep dive today.
So, let me give you a lay of the land here in Southern Oregon as it relates to viticulture. The Southern Oregon AVA, which has about 25% of the state's vineyards, starts just past Eugene, Oregon, so we're a little over 200km, or 125 miles south of the city of Portland, and weaves its way south about nearly 200km, so about 115 miles, to just north of the California border.
The viticultural area in Southern Oregon is defined by two major river valleys, we have the Umpqua River Valley in the north which runs north to south, and then the Rogue River Valley in the south which runs more east to west.
In terms of the microclimate of this area, it is very different from what we see in the Willamette Valley, where Pinot Noir is the star variety. Here in Southern Oregon, we have the Siskiyou Mountains which is part of the coastal range, to the west, which help to shelter these river valleys from the precipitation from off the Pacific Ocean, which is about 50km to the west, making this area drier and sunnier. And then to the east, we have the Cascade Mountains.
Thanks to these mountain ranges, we have vineyards at a moderate elevation, which gives us a wide diurnal range in temperatures during the growing season, as much as 15 degrees C difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures, which helps to slow down ripening and preserve acidities.
It is also important to note that, because of these mountain ranges and river valleys, we find a number different aspects and altitudes, making this area suitable for cultivating a wide diversity of grape varieties, but this also means that site selection becomes very critical.
So drilling down to today's wine, this is coming from two vineyard sources near the town of Medford in the Rogue Valley AVA, which was established in 1991. This particular area of the Rogue Valley is defined by one of its tributaries, the Bear Creek River, which runs north to south. These vineyards, the Craterview and Sundown vineyards are both on the west side of the Bear Creek River and at an average elevation of about 487m, or 1600ft, above sea level. In the Craterview vineyard, the Cabernet Franc block, which is about 1.32acres, has a slightly more western facing exposure, giving us the benefit of the afternoon sunshine, and the the Cabernet Franc block in the Sundown vineyard, which is about 3 acres, has a slightly more east-facing exposure.
Now in terms of soils, there is a lot of diversity across Southern Oregon, but in general we find 3 main groups of soils: marine sedimentary soils, volcanic, and alluvial stream sediments. Here along the Bear Creek River, the main influence in terms of the soil are these alluvial stream sediments, which are these silty-loam and clay-loam soils with a higher percentage of calcareous materials, like sedimentary rock with marine fossils. And because of the soils here, this area of the Rogue Valley has begun to emerge as a top source of the Bordeaux varieties. In fact, back in 2015, Leah found rocks with mollusk fossils, other marine fossils, limestones and blue schist rocks in the Craterview vineyard, which were confirmed by a local geologist to be of marine origin and date to around 250 million years ago.
So these two blocks of vines were planted in 2004, and as I mentioned, the soil here is defined as Gregory silt-loam, with these calcareous and sedimentary rocks, so there is a good balance of drainage and moisture retention. Drip irrigation is installed because of the low rainfall that this area sees, and the vineyard is sustainably farmed.
In terms of the winemaking, Leah opts for 100% destemmed fruit, with a combination of 50% whole berry and 50% crushed fruit. She does a 4-day cold soak before fermentation kicks off, then fermentation is with cultured yeast in open top fermenters. She does punch downs twice daily during the active fermentation and the wine stays on skins for about 2 weeks. Aging takes place in a combination of neutral French oak and stainless steel for about 8 months before the lots are blended and bottled.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Leah Jørgensen Cellars
Region: Oregon
AVA: Southern Oregon AVA (Rogue Valley)
Vineyards: Craterview and Sundown Vineyards
Soils: Alluvial stream sediments, with calcareous and sedimentary rocks with marine fossils
Alcohol: 14.0%
