Cabernet Franc

Identity

Cabernet Franc leads a quiet double life: a minor, near-anonymous player in the great blends of the Libournais, yet it takes the leading role in the Loire Valley, where Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny turn it into perfumed, easy-drinking reds with a freshness that has little to do with Bordeaux's idea of Cabernet.

Its tannins are softer than those of its own offspring, Cabernet Sauvignon; its acidity runs high, and its scent is instantly recognisable — violet, raspberry and, above all, a blackcurrant-bud note that signs the best Chinon. At insufficient ripeness it also shows a green-pepper note even more forward than Cabernet Sauvignon's.

History and origin

Cabernet Franc probably originates in south-west France. Its roots in the Loire Valley go back a long way: the Chinon appellation rules have it arriving upriver from Nantes — hence "breton", the local name it still goes by — and identify it with the "good breton wine" that Rabelais, writing in 1534, places in the Véron country near Chinon.

Its place in grape genealogy is considerable. Crossed with Sauvignon Blanc, it produced Cabernet Sauvignon; crossed with the obscure Magdeleine Noire des Charentes, it produced Merlot. It has also been put forward as a parent of Carménère, but Carménère's own parentage is still debated: the VIVC records differing proposals.

Its own parentage, though, remains a gap on the map. The VIVC assigns it no marker-confirmed pedigree, and the Boursiquot team's 2009 study, which resolved Merlot's parentage so precisely, found Cabernet Franc related only to two minor Basque varieties, Morenoa and Txakoli — a kinship, not a set of parents. Writing in a pair of parents here would mean inventing a history the science has not yet written; this entry abstains, as the Pinot Noir one does.

In the vineyard

Cabernet Franc buds five days after Chasselas and ripens at mid-season, two and a half to three weeks after it — a rhythm close to Syrah's, and distinctly earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, which brings up the rear. It is this relative, not absolute, earliness that has let Cabernet Franc settle as far north as the Loire, where Cabernet Sauvignon struggles to ripen most vintages.

Its vigour is moderate: Pl@ntGrape calls it "fairly vigorous," pruned short to medium-long depending on how mild the climate is. It shows moderate resistance to grey rot, but moderate sensitivity to eutypa dieback and esca, and to leafhoppers. Spring frost threatens it, though less than it does Merlot, and coulure is a risk in a cold vintage at flowering.

It expresses itself on two quite distinct soil types in the Loire: sandy-gravel terraces, laid down by the Loire and the Vienne, give supple, fruity wines; slopes of tuffeau, a soft Turonian chalk, give more structured, tannic wines, the fullest of which repay a few years in the cellar. In the Libournais it finds the same cool clay-limestone that Merlot favours too.

In the glass

Ruby colour, lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon's. On the nose, raspberry and strawberry lead the fruit, over a floral base of violet. The most distinctive marker remains blackcurrant bud — not to be confused with ripe blackcurrant fruit: it is the smell of the bud itself, green and aromatic, characteristic of the best Chinon.

On under-ripe fruit, green pepper shows through, the methoxypyrazine marker more readily perceived here than in Cabernet Sauvignon, even though Cabernet Franc shares the same genetics by direct descent. A touch of graphite often accompanies it. In riper Libournais blends the fruit shifts toward blackberry, blacker and denser.

On the palate, acidity runs high (3 to 4), tannins are supple to moderate (2 to 4): a Cabernet without Cabernet Sauvignon's tannic bite. With age, undergrowth and leather emerge.

Great terroirs

The Loire Valley is its chosen ground. It is the principal grape of the reds of Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny, though not the only one allowed: the rules admit Cabernet Sauvignon alongside it, up to 10% of plantings in Chinon and Bourgueil, and in Saumur-Champigny Cabernet Sauvignon and Pineau d'Aunis, no more than 15% between them. Bourgueil lies north of the Loire, between Tours and Saumur; Chinon's vineyard runs along both banks of the Vienne, near where it meets the Loire. In both, the rules link the sandy-gravel soils of the terraces to fruity reds and the tuffeau chalk of the slopes to more structured ones. Saumur-Champigny, south of the Loire around Saumur, sits on the Turonian limestone; its rules describe fresh, round, supple reds.

In Bordeaux, it plays a minor blending role alongside Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon — the Médoc AOC rules admit it this way, together with Petit Verdot, Cot and Carménère — and takes on particular importance on the Right Bank: in Saint-Émilion it is one of the appellation's five principal varieties, with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Côt and Carménère.

Commonly confused with

Cabernet Sauvignon, its own offspring, is the most natural mix-up: it shares the green pepper and graphite, but with far firmer tannins, still higher acidity, and a reputation for lateness that Cabernet Franc does not carry.

Merlot, its other offspring, can deceive in a young, lightly marked blend: Merlot has lower acidity, rounder tannins, and lacks Cabernet Franc's clean green-pepper note.

Gamay, in a very light Chinon or Bourgueil made by short maceration, can mislead through pale colour; but it has neither the blackcurrant bud nor the green pepper, and its fruit runs to banana and boiled sweets instead.