Flirty Cabernet Franc 'a fickle beast' | The Pickled Pixie

Pockets of paradise are aplenty as I meandered up the Capes coast.

Along the way, I spied with my little pixie eye one of the best boutique wineries in our region.

Cape Grace Wines is a picturesque painting of the quintessential small family-owned and operated winery estate.

It’s quaint and quirky, and it feels just like home.

Although they may be small, their classy wines are big on flavour and are considered some of the most outstanding wines crafted from the Wilyabrup sub-region.

The cellar door oozes a kind of charm that only a rustic shed in the forest can; couple that with the cutest little winery attached out the back, and… yes, I’m in heaven.

Sprinkling some starry icing onto this already enticing cake was the simply delicious discovery of their Cabernet Franc.

A straight Cab Franc is as rare as finding a pixie floating in the bottom of your wine glass.

And when you do, and it’s as disarmingly divine as this one-the wine world gets a bit more exciting!

Cabernet Franc is most often found as a merry and precious component of the beloved French Bordeaux blends (a heady wine marriage of Cab Sav, Merlot, Malbec, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot), lending its magic to making some of the most expensive and greatest wines in the world.

Roll out the red carpet for the likes of Chateau Margaux and Mouton Rothchild…

I’m not usually one for giving wines a gender personification; however, this variety, with its subtle, alluring aromatics, bats its eyelashes rather flirtatiously in the silkiest of ways, so it could well be expressed as Cab Sav’s feminine counterpart (although Cabernet Sauvignon is actually the progeny of Cab Franc and Sauvignon Blanc).

This variety is finally peeking out from behind the curtails of the mighty Cab Sav blends to tell its own tale.

And you are in for a stunning story.

Cab Franc is particularly fond of moderate maritime climates, so Margaret River is perfect for this grape.

“Cabernet Franc is a fickle beast of late ripening and high cropping. But get it right, and you are rewarded in the winery with beautiful raspberry notes, natural acidity and lashings of fine-grained tannins,” explains Cape Grace’s winemaker Conrad Tritt.

And this little pixie has to say…Cape Grace certainly got it right!

This wine is fun, refreshing, and refined elegance wrapped perfectly in a playful package, with just the right amount of pulse and depth to make you swoon.

This cool Spring weather presents the perfect opportunity to nestle up to a good red.

And this wine should be on your wine radar.

It will make it ping and pop, swinging the dial to “This wine is a firecracker!”.

Its deliciousness makes it so damn hard to stop at one glass.

So, I won’t be flying off anytime soon… but instead hanging up my wings to sit by the fire with this beauty.

Cabernet Franc, with all its spirited acidity and gorgeous red fruits, allows it to handle foods with a bit of fattiness.

It makes an exquisite companion to grilled salmon with fresh herbed pesto and baked penne with prosciutto, or why not get all fancy pants and try your chef’s hand at a spiced duck breast and grilled blackberries?

Hot pixie tip: for a heavenly union of flavours, always use fresh herbs in dishes you pair with a Cab Franc.

If, after trying this wine, Cabernet Franc raced up your wine radar, here are some more of the region’s little shining stars:

Deep Woods Single Vineyard Cabernet Franc

Hayshed Hill Block 8

Try a Bordeaux blend with a Chateau Leglise Bordeaux from Margaret River Liquor Merchants, or sip from the origins with a Dulong Reserve Saint Emilion from Dunsborough Liquorland.

Have fun. Enjoy. Discover. Live.

Cheers!

The Pickled Pixie

THE PIXIE REVIEW

2020 Cape Grace Cabernet Franc

A medium-rubied jewel of colour splashes happily in the glass. The aroma is a dark chocolate-cherry bouquet carried on the swaying, seductive hips of satsuma plums, pomegranates, violets and vibrant raspberry, threaded with a touch of delicate herbal spice.

The palate carries this over, taking a slightly deeper plunge into plush red and black fruit pools. The lucid and lively acidity claps with joy, coiling around the soft spine of fine, dusky cacao tannins to drive an artfully generous and lush finish.