Usonia Wine's Current Releases (Finger Lakes, NY)

No.53 | Producer Feature

I’m sure many out there (professionals and enthusiasts alike) that can attest to the fact that, for one reason or another, there are just some wines stay cemented in our brains long after the glass or bottle is finished. This was my first experience with Usonia Wine’s Cabernet Franc. I tried Julia and Alex’s Cab Franc for the first time when I was part of Lenn Thompson’s Cabernet Franc tasting panel in February 2023. That day I tasted their 2021 Cabernet Franc blind among some 20+ Cabernet Francs from the Finger Lakes along with another 50 or so other Cab Francs from the east coast of the US, and to this day, this wine still stands out in my memory. And I think it has stuck with me among the many Cabernet Francs I tasted that day because it tasted the most “familiar” to me. There was something about it that I instantly recognized and immediately said, “oh! This my kinda Cabernet Franc.” It was bright, juicy, a little wild, distinctly herbal, with soft, supple tannins, and it had that …