Southbrook, 2020 Laundry Vineyard Cabernet Franc, Niagara, Ontario

No.35 | What's In My Glass

When I started my journey with Cabernet Franc many many moons ago, it was actually examples from Ontario, from my own backyard, that were my first introduction to the grape. One of those “North Star” expressions of the variety came from the Laundry Vineyard and was made by one of Niagara’s most beloved winemakers, the late Paul Pender winemaker at Tawse Winery. It was one of those wines that always spoke to me, and it was really one of the first wines I tried where I began to think about Cabernet Franc as being be a mirror for “great terroir.”

Farmed by veteran grape grower Heather Laundry, the fruit from this exceptional site became part of the Southbrook Vineyards stable of red wines in 2018, and the winery released the 2020 vintage back in July. Heather has two key sites that she farms, one in the Vinemount Ridge VQA sub-appellation, which is the source of her Riesling and Gamay, and one in the Lincoln Lakeshore VQA sub-appellation, where her Cabernet Franc is planted.

Because of its…