Carbenet Franc Wine Region Outside Europe

Worldwide Cabernet Franc is one of the twenty most widely planted grape varieties. Plantings are found throughout Europe, in the New World, even China and Kazakhstan. In many regions, it is planted as a component of a Bordeaux-style blend such as Meritage, playing secondary role to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. In parts of northeast Italy, Anjou-Saumur, Touraine and right bank region of Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc both plays a more prominent role in blends and is vinted as a varietal.

Outside of France and Italy, sizable plantings of Cabernet Franc is found in Hungary, Spain, Slovenia and Kosovo. In all the Hungarian wine regions producing reds, especially in Villány and Szekszárd, the grape is used in Bordeaux-style blends and is also bottled as a varietal wine. This variety of grape is not very common in Spain and is to be found mainly in Catalonia, where it is an authorized variety in four Denominaciones de Origen: Catalunya (DO), Conca de Barberà (DO), Penedès and Terra Alta (DO).


Canada

Cabernet Franc is becoming more popular in Canada, being planted in Ontario's Niagara Peninsula, Prince Edward County, the north shore of Lake Erie, Pelee Island, and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. While it is most often used in blends, it is gaining some popularity as a single varietal and as icewine. Ripening about two weeks earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon, it often does better in Canada's cooler climate than other red wine grape varieties. Ontario Cabernet Franc's often add a characteristic

USA
Cabernet Franc can be used as a blending grape or made into a varietal such as this Cabernet Franc from Virginia.

Interest in the grape started with California wine makers, who wanted to replicate the Bordeaux blend (now marketed as Meritage). In the early to mid 20th century, some plantings of Cabernet Franc were mistaken for Merlot. In the 1980s, heightened interest in Cabernet Franc lead to an increase in plantings that helped push the total acreage of Cabernet Franc in California to 3400 acres (1375 ha), most of which is in Napa and Sonoma counties.[3] In 1986, Casa Nuestra Winery in Napa Valley initiated the first Cabernet Franc program in the United States, winning a Double Gold and Best of Class Medal in the Los Angeles Times Wine Competition for their first vintage. The program continues today.

More recently the grape has caught the attention of growers in cooler areas such as Long Island and the Finger Lakes of New York, The Grand Valley AVA of Colorado, Pennsylvania, Michigan's west coast, Washington state and in the Monticello wine region in the Virginia Piedmont as well as the Roanoke metropolitan area and Rocky Knob AVA areas of Southwestern Virginia. Michigan State University conducts research on Cabernet Franc at their agricultural research center in Benton Harbor, Michigan. In the Great Lakes Region and Virginia, Cabernet Franc is valued for its ability to ripen more reliably than other red Vitis vinifera and to produces wine better quality than most hybrid grapes.

In Washington State, the first plantings of Cabernet Franc were cultivated in experimental blocks by Washington State University in the Columbia Valley during the 1970s. In 1985, Cabernet Franc was planted in the Red Willow Vineyard for use in Bordeaux style blends. The first varietal Cabernet Franc in Washington was released in 1991 by Columbia Winery followed by Chateau Ste Michelle in 1992 with grapes planted from their Cold Creek Vineyard. In the 1990s, Chinook Winery introduced the state's first Cabernet Franc rosé. Today it is the fourth most widely planted grape in the state behind Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot & Syrah. Washington Cabernet Franc is distinctive for its fruit forward style with blueberry and raspberry fruit. The characteristics vegetal notes is toned down in Washington with the wines tending to show more notes of ground coffee and olives. (wikipedia)


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