Forge Cellars, 2019 Willow Vineyard Cabernet Franc, Finger Lakes, New York, USA
Cab Franc du Jour #62
Forge Cellars was established in 2008 as a partnership between 14th-generation Rhône vigneron Louis Barroul of Château de Saint-Cosme and wine industry veteran Rick Rainey, with the original goal of producing single-vineyard Rieslings and Pinot Noirs. The 2019 vintage marks their inaugural Cabernet Franc. During a visit to the Finger Lakes in July, I spent a couple of hours with Rick discussing his philosophy around viticulture and winemaking. He explained that Cabernet Franc had always been in his peripheral vision: a lover of Loire Valley Cabernet Franc, he has long seen the potential for the variety in the Finger Lakes, and it took several years to find the right site with the right grower.
The Willow Vineyard: Location, Soils, Viticulture
The wine comes from a 5-acre (2-hectare) block planted in 2016, farmed by legendary Finger Lakes grower John Wagner. The vineyard is located near Lodi on the east side of Seneca Lake, on a west-facing slope at around 220m above sea level. That westerly aspect captures the stronger afternoon sunshine, which in a cooler vintage like 2019 would have been beneficial for ripening and for minimizing pyrazines. The site also sits less than 500m from the lake, giving it a stronger moderating influence from the water and making it a relatively warm site by Finger Lakes standards.
In terms of soils, the Finger Lakes can be broadly divided along the lines of two bedrock types: limestone in the upper parts of the lakes and shale in the lower. Here at the southern end of Seneca Lake, the bedrock is a dark, calcareous shale known as Utica shale, dating to the Middle Ordovician period, approximately 20 million years older than the Queenston Formation red shale found under many vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Above that, the topsoil is glacial till formed after the last Ice Age, with a deep, mostly sandy texture in this particular block that provides excellent drainage, particularly valuable in a wetter vintage like 2019.
The vines are trained to the Scott Henry system, a four-arm, cane-pruned method with two fruiting zones and a divided canopy that is widely used across the Finger Lakes for Cabernet Franc and other varieties. It is generally preferred where vigour is high and disease pressure is greater, as is common in cooler, more humid microclimates, and the divided canopy helps to improve sun exposure to the bunches. Yields can run higher with this system, however, requiring careful management.
From conversations with growers and industry professionals in the region, and from tasting a range of examples, the question of whether Scott Henry is the ideal training system for Cabernet Franc red wine production in the Finger Lakes remains open for debate. Yield management is critical, and knowing the site well enough to find that sweet spot is what separates good results from ordinary ones.
Rick works closely with John throughout the growing season on canopy and yield management, favouring more judicious and extensive leaf removal and green harvesting to maintain balance, targeting a yield of around 3 to 3.5 tons per acre.
In the Cellar
Fermentation takes place in large 5,000L wooden fermenters with 40% whole cluster and the remainder destemmed. Indigenous yeast is used throughout, and the wine spends approximately 20 days on skins with very gentle punchdowns to achieve the right level of extraction. Maturation takes place in a combination of smaller barriques, demi-muids, and the larger wooden vats, with roughly a third of the wine in each vessel type.
Wine Details
Producer: Forge Cellars
Region: New York
Appellation: Finger Lakes (Seneca Lake)
Vineyard: Willow Vineyard
Soil: Sandy loam atop Utica shale bedrock
Alcohol: 12.5%