Fogolar Wines, 2016 Picone Vineyard Cabernet Franc, VQA Vinemount Ridge, Ontario, Canada
Cab Franc du Jour #117
Fogolar Wines was launched by Marc Pistor in 2013. Marc has been making wine in Niagara since 2005, and before striking out on his own, he served as assistant winemaker at Inniskillin and head winemaker at Arterra Wines, Inniskillin’s parent company. The name Fogolar pays homage to his Friulian roots: from the local Furlan dialect, it translates to hearth, or a gathering place to share food among family and friends. Marc’s focus at Fogolar is Riesling and Cabernet Franc, both for their proven ability to produce consistently excellent wines in Niagara and for their capacity to express a genuine sense of place in the glass. He works with select growers and vineyard sites for both varieties, and today we’re looking at his Picone Vineyard Cabernet Franc.
If Ontario ever adopted a cru system to recognize top vineyard and variety combinations, there are a handful of sites for Cabernet Franc that I believe would merit serious consideration based on their track record of excellence and terroir expressiveness. The Picone Vineyard is one of them.
The Vinemount Ridge VQA Appellation
Located west of the village of Vineland in the Vinemount Ridge VQA sub-appellation, the Picone Vineyard has a 1.37-acre block of Cabernet Franc planted in the early 1980s, making these among the oldest Cabernet Franc vines in Ontario. It is a site I have been paying attention to since the early days of my career, when the fruit was being vinified by Ravine Vineyard, and Marc has been working with it for Fogolar since 2014.
The Vinemount Ridge VQA is one of three sub-appellations, alongside Creek Shores and the Lincoln Lakeshore, that sit outside both the Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Escarpment regional appellations. It is a large sub-appellation stretching roughly 40km from east to west and covering around 120 square kilometres, with considerable variability from site to site. The region sits atop the Niagara Escarpment and is defined by two geological features: the Vinemount Moraine to the west and north, and the Fonthill Kame to the east.
Despite the size of the sub-appellation, some broad observations about the growing environment can be made. Because of its position set back from Lake Ontario, vineyards here receive less moderating influence from the lake, resulting in a shorter but warmer overall growing season and colder winters. The Vinemount Ridge records the fewest growing degree days of any VQA sub-appellation in the Niagara Peninsula. Away from the lake and exposed to the prevailing southwesterly winds, the region experiences a pronounced diurnal temperature range, with cool nights offsetting warm days, which slows ripening and preserves natural acidity. Soils across the sub-appellation vary considerably, but clay content in the topsoils tends to be higher here than in most other parts of the peninsula.
The Picone Vineyard
The Picone Vineyard sits at the very northern edge of the Vinemount Ridge appellation, about 6km south of Lake Ontario, on what is considered part of the Vinemount Moraine.
The Cabernet Franc block has a slight north-facing exposure at an elevation of around 187m above sea level. During a visit to the vineyard in the fall of 2020 with Marc and viticulturalist Phil Clarke, Phil described the site as having excellent ventilation and good sun exposure owing to its open, exposed position. The limestone subsoil is topped by what Phil calls “pesky blue clay,” a reference to the thickness and density of the clay layer. That clay keeps the site naturally low-yielding and typically eliminates the need for green harvesting. Shoot thinning is carried out at the start of the season, with leaf removal as needed to balance yield and canopy, and the block usually yields around 3 to 3.5 tons per acre.
Overall this is a cool, slow-ripening site with a slightly longer than average growing season, giving Cabernet Franc the time it needs to build genuine phenolic maturity through a gradual ripening process.
In the Cellar
The fruit is hand-harvested, with the majority destemmed and typically around 15% retained as whole cluster depending on the vintage. Fermentation takes place in open-top one-ton fermenters using a combination of indigenous and cultured yeasts, with total skin contact of approximately 28 days. After pressing, the free-run and press wines are combined and aged in barrel for 16 to 18 months. Marc typically produces 8 to 10 barrels from this block, using a combination of French and American oak with around 20 to 30% new. At bottling, he selects the best three or four barrels for the single-vineyard expression, which typically draws exclusively from the French oak portion.
Wine Details
Producer: Fogolar Wines
Region: Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada
Appellation: VQA Vinemount Ridge
Vineyard: Picone Vineyard
Soils: Deep, heavier clay
Alcohol: 13.6%