cabernet franc query

I had never read any of this thread until today but now after reading it completely from beginning to end and then reading an actuary table I realize I can't afford to waste my time like this, considering my life span projection.
 
originally posted by Nicolas Mestre:
It is this type of thinking that leads to absurdities like Jean-Paul Brun's L'Ancien being denied AOC status by the INAO.
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It is this type of thinking that would deny us the power of categorizations and generalizations. (Can they be abused? Of course. All ideas and words may.)

To me, "correct" means the wine accurately embodies the kind of wine that the label claims for it. The word whiffs of faint praise not for any denotational reason but because an exciting wine should cause me to choose a more exciting adjective.
 
Food chutes.
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along with their brethren
the starlings
who, in a matter of speech
floated rather
than flew, on grain sacks (and ships)
they breached

they walk
and they squawk
with heads jilting for'd

the rats of the sky
have out nummered the normer'd

so starling, oh starling
with your oil can squeak call
can you leave us in silence?
leave us at all?
 
originally posted by Nicolas Mestre:
My concern is with the use of a word that qualifies a wine in a manner that is both arbitrary and exclusionary.
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I recommend you avoid reading most tasting notes. >:^)

Jonathan explained what I meant better than I could. I am now very bored with this topic, and in the future will keep my correctness to myself.
 
originally posted by VS:
Get really exotic - there's one, and only one, 100% cabernet franc made in Spain - Augustus Cab Franc, from the coastal fringe, right on the Mediterranean, of the Peneds DO in Catalonia. Pretty good actually.
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This seems surprising to me. But then, I know of only varietal Verdelho in the Loire, so I suppose it shouldn't be.
 
originally posted by Nicolas Mestre:
It makes me uncomfortable when people refer to wines as "correct."

Please explain what this means, if you would be so kind.
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It's just a put-down, the faintest of praise.
 
It's interesting the intrusion of Sauvignon into a discussion about Cabernet. Maybe this is the residue of their sexual history, that when you talk about one someone might tend to think about the other.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Horton started going downhill 10 years ago. David's complaint that they make too many wines seemed less the issue with me (they were always experimenting) then that they went seriously mass production.

Nicolas, I've tried the VA wines I've mentioned. I know that Linden's Chard was a poster child for overoaked and maloed for sometime. Even in those years, they became better after 10 years in the bottle. Glen Manor reds are quite processed, less so the whites I think. What others are you talking about?
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I've wanted to add a word to this discussion about Linden in the context of Virginia wines - hope I'm not being boorish in doing so. Linden's founder, Jim Law, returned from Peace Corps service in Africa in the mid-1980s and built Linden up from scratch. Jim operates in a state where the typical wine culture is 32 wine types, including boysenberry, pear, and apple, with little apprehension about adding anything that makes them sweeter or more alcoholic, and where a focus on flavor qualities at additional expense, sacrificing quantity, is generally regarded as eccentric.

In the midst of this culture, swimming much against the current, Jim has pursued a model of, if I may so characterize it, thoughtful European viticulture and wine making: emphasizing place, restricting fruit production and practicing canopy management, respecting the fruit, intervening minimally. I don't claim that his wines vie with the best of Europe and California, or that they are bargain buys compared to these wines. Viewing wine as a commodity, Jim's wines don't offer a particularly good 'points to dollars' ratio. But they are generally quite good, sometimes excellent wines, and are not badly-priced for a small-scale, artisanal operation. Folks interested in the frontiers of American wine-making, outside of the established west-coast regions, shouldn't overlook them.

Because of the nature of the Virginia wine culture, Jim has had to do a lot of his learning by trial and error, so it shouldn't surprise too much if he has over-oaked at times; but it's fair to view such outcomes through the filter of the context in which he works. Nearly as interesting as his wines, also, are his efforts to make learning he's acquired available in the area, through courses and writing. His web site is worth a visit (google 'linden wines VA,' or some such combination).

I obviously respect and admire Jim, but I have no financial interest in his operation and am not a personal friend. I also don't mean to say that there aren't other vintners in Virginia making their wines with equal care, but I view Jim as something of a pioneer.
 
I like Richard Graeser's Cabernet Franc very much, although I just checked his website and he doesn't have any for sale. I don't know if this is good (sold out!) or bad (plowed over the vineyard!).

Still, they were some of my favorite Napa red wines.
 
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