Grace Estate Winery, 2021 'Slope of Grace' Cabernet Franc, Monticello, Virginia

No.34 | What's In My Glass

One of the great, unexpected rewards of this project and committing to studying, understanding and appreciating a single grape variety is that when I am tasting examples of Cabernet Franc, I am now starting to “see” the wine beyond its technical elements. When I am tasting, naturally I am looking at classic parameters like acidity, tannins, balance, concentration, complexity, etc., but now it is almost as if there is another dimension to the wine that I am able to see. Depending on the wine and its origins, I might define this as sense of place, soul, intention, passion or simply “this person gets Cabernet Franc.”

This last idea is a little bit difficult to articulate, at least at this stage of this journey. “Getting” Cabernet Franc is the culmination of a lot of factors from the vineyard to the cellar, and these elements can present in any combination and weighting. As I am not formally trained in viticulture or winemaking, I sometimes struggle to link the technical aspects of these domains with what I taste in the glass, which can leave me a little frustrated at times when I try to articulate why one Cabernet Franc I’ve tasted really speaks to me and not another. Maybe I’m overthinking it. (I’m probably overthinking it.) But this struggle between my thinking brain and feeling brain has meant that this post has sat in my drafts for over eight weeks.

A native of Afton, Virginia and second-generation grape grower, Robbie Corpora assumed the role of vineyard manager and winemaker at Monticello’s Grace Estate Winery in 2021. A self-proclaimed farmer first having had no formal winemaking training, his journey began in 2005 working in the vineyards at his family’s winery Afton Mountain Vineyards, followed by time spent working in vineyards throughout the Monticello AVA, and later head grape grower and winemaker for Ramiiisol.

I have not met Robbie. Nor have I visited the vineyards or cellar at Grace Estate, or Robbie’s own Podere Piccolo, a personal project and vineyard focused on exclusively Cabernet Franc that should start to come into production in 2025. But we’ve been following each other on social for a while, and more recently we’ve emailed and messaged back and forth quite a bit so I could interrogate him with my line of technical questioning about his work with Cabernet Franc. And while not a complete picture, there is a lot one can ascertain from these sorts of interactions. So, all of this is to say, if the 2021 ‘Slope of Grace’ Cabernet Franc from Grace Estate is any indication, I feel pretty confident to say that Robbie Corpora gets Cabernet Franc, and he understands the potential of the Monticello AVA and this grape and place combination. (No pressure, Robbie, if you are reading this.)

The ‘Slope of Grace’ block is a mere quarter of a hectare parcel (0.68 acres) of the estate’s 8.5 acres of Cabernet Franc vines. Perched up on a moderately steep east-facing slope in the lower foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains at an average elevation of about 250m above sea level. The block was planted in 2011 with clone 327, and the soils here are rocky, decomposed gneiss and granite that have a sandy-silt texture, with heavier clays in the subsoil. Robbie focuses a lot of his work in the vineyard on canopy management in an effort to achieve vine balance and reduce the need for vineyard treatments with a lot of attention paid to careful shoot selection, selective leaf removal early, and flower and bunch positioning throughout the season. In the cellar, the emphasis is on gently handling the fruit, a thoughtful approach to extractions, aging in large format oak (15hl foudre), and selective but minimal use of SO2.

In the glass, the nose opens with a balanced mix of sweet, fleshy fruits and decidedly franc-forward herbal undertones, like Bing cherry, black raspberry and blueberry compote mixing with notes of mint, basil, lilac and touch of cedar. The nose is beautifully pure, fresh, clean and instantly inviting. The fruit and herbal notes continue on the palate with added layers of peppery and sweet spices such as chilli flake and cinnamon, with an added hint of cocoa and tobacco. The wine’s soft yet mouth-watering acidity mingles nicely with velvety, elegant tannins that finish with a pleasant firmness. The palate offers up a certain plushness, generosity, and energy, all nicely wrapped up in a balanced, well-built frame with beautiful integrity and persistence of fruit. It has immense approachability, drinkability and ease that can make Cabernet Franc so pleasurable when young, but the wine also shows sufficient layers and depth that I think will delivery even more enjoyment over the medium term.

Since trying a bottle of this wine for the first time at the beginning of May, I’ve had it a couple more times since then, admittedly for the pure enjoyment of it, but also I’m a slow taster and sometimes I like the exercise of cross-referencing my notes. And when I am making notes on wines, I often write down a slew of adjectives that come to mind to describe the wine’s demeanour and personality. Sometimes these words, particularly with wines like this, can be more helpful than tasting descriptors when recalling how I felt about a wine at the time of tasting. The words I used to describe this 2021 ‘Slope of Grace’ Cabernet Franc include contemporary, respectful, honest, true. This wine has a sense of purpose and intention. It also has a quiet confidence about it. It is humble and hopeful.

In one of our correspondences, Robbie shared with me that he is learning everyday and still has a lot to learn, but he sees that Cabernet Franc is excelling in the vineyard regardless of the vintage, and has the ability to consistently express in the glass a certain mineral distinctiveness, finesse and spice, even in challenging years. The idealist might chock this up to be a function of “terroir” and argue the qualitative merits of the place. But we all know that grape vines need to be tamed and farmed, and wine does not make itself. Enter the human element in wine. The caretaker, the alchemist, the person that sees things through from vineyard to bottle.

While this wine is my first introduction to Robbie and his work with Cabernet Franc, he is a grape grower and winemaker that I will continue to watch, and I look forward to trying future vintages of Cabernet Franc from Grace Estate, Podere Piccolo and any other project that might be in store for Robbie in the future.