One of my favorite producers of the Ontario region, in Canada, is Vineland Estates. For more than 30 years Vineland Estates Winery has been a top producer of award-winning Riesling and Cabernet Franc. The wines are crafted by winemaker Brian Schmidt.
I received this bottle from Allison Slute, of the Cab Franc Chronicles. She is one of the foremost authorities on Cabernet Franc in the world, and an expert on Canadian Cab Franc.
Brian was born in Kelowna, British Columbia and was raised on a vineyard that had been in the family for three generations. The Schmidt family was one of the founding families of the Okanagan wine industry. Brian has experimented, researched and has traveled extensively throughout Europe’s cool climate regions studying winemaking and the specific connections to the land. Brian arrived at Vineland Estate in 1992. One notable achievement was the awarding of the 2003 VinItaly Grand Gold trophy as the highest scoring winery in a field of over three thousand wines. This was the first time this trophy had ever been awarded outside of Europe. I have met Brian several times and am a bog fan of his wines.
I had a mixed reaction - at first - to the Vineland Estate Cabernet Franc Reserve 2022. When I tasted it twice, once with Lenn Thompson of the Cork Report, and once with a friend with pizza. The first time was in a panel tasting, blind, and I wasn't sure of what I was tasting. I did not love it at first. It was jammed into a flight of five or six wines, and in style, it was not much like the others. This was no fault of Lenn's. We were tasting 60-70 wines in a morning session, and patience wears a little thin. Not the most opportune way to drink wine - but we were trying to taste as many Est Coast Cab Francs as possible.
The second time I had it was just the other night. I twisted the cork and again was confused by the nose. Something strange about it. And in eating food and drinking wine, smell is important. If food smelled off you wouldn't race to get it down your gullet. But I was hungry and got to my dinner. I swirled the wine twice over a five minute period, and let some of the nose blow off. Now, with a chance to blow off some off aromas and a chance to let it breathe, the wine blossomed. Which brought about an interesting thought process.
Young red wines should be let to breathe. Lenn had done his best to do this during the tastings, but with time constraints, and the sheer number samples, it doesn't always lend itself to such tomfoolery as decanting and breathing. But this wine absolutely required it - and deserved it.
The Vineland Estate Cabernet Franc Reserve 2022 is 100% Cabernet Franc. The wines starts off with a cherry-and-black raspberry cobbler note, but it also swirled with big doses of leather, tobacco, and beef broth. This is a layered wine. The second wrung of flavors starts off with a lovely acidity and newer fruit, bramble, and pomegranate, give way to dried herbs, sage and other spices, as well as wet slate. There was an indescribable savory touch. And then the acidity took over, and the cherry began to linger very nicely after each sip. This was a deeply layered, complicated wine that took patience and savoring. The wine had opened up in a huge way. I ended up liking this wine very much! And it reminded me of the value of decanting.
In an era where the mantra is ready to drink from bottling - sometimes it's important to take your time, show some patience, and lend a hand. Decanting has been around for centuries for a reason. Given a chance, this wine will seduce you.
My relationship with Vineland Estate Cabernet Franc Reserve 2022? It's complicated (but in a good way).