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 d…