Hunt Country Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Franc
If you don't like cabernet franc, you might be reading the wrong blog. And sure, for a long time I didn't have a lot of great things to say about Finger Lakes region reds, but a few have impressed me of late, including this one, Hunt Country Vineyards 2005 Cabernet Franc ($22).
The summer of 2005 brought about great ripeness in vineyards throughout New York and that ripe fruit is on display here. The nose is bright and enticing, mixing strawberry and cherry fruit with black pepper, sweet herbs, and just a little vanilla.
Bing cherry flavors, with more black pepper, and spices, burst on the attack. This is a cab franc with a bit more structure than you might expect, but I like it. This is a wine that will improve with short-term aging (the synthetic cork is the limiting factor here). The herb component from the nose is more subtle on the palate, lingering the background, but peeking through on the medium-length finish.
I'd be curious to have tasted this wine with a little less barrel influence (it spent a year aging in new oak), just to get a truer expression of the fruit, but the oak isn't overwhelming at all. A really nice example of what the Finger Lakes can produce in a warm year.
It's sold out, but I was able to get my hands on some for the New York Cork Club January shipment, which will ship early next week.
Producer: Hunt Country Vineyards
AVA: Finger Lakes
Price: $22
Rating:
(3 out of 5 | Recommended)
(Ratings Guide)
Lenn,
Nice review for a hard-working family operation. I wonder if Art Hunt can jump on this comment thread and explain closure decisions. 2005 was such a beautiful vintage and ideally everything would be closed with natural cork, but economic realities don’t always line up with our desires.
Anyway, cheers to Hunt Country.
Dear Lenn and Evan,
The cork issue has been the subject of lots of lively debate here. About 10 years ago we were forced to go to synthetic corks because the natural corks had a defect rate approaching 10%. Since then, the international cork industry has spent millions to reduce the rate to less than 1%. The 05 Cab Franc was a turning point for us. We decided that in future we would bottle our wines that fall into the “super-premium” category with natural cork. While over 90% of wines in America are consumed within a week of purchase, we and other Finger Lakes wineries now have wines that might fall into that remaining 10%, i.e. they might be cellared for many years. We have found that the synthetic corks don’t seem to impart negative flavors, but over cellaring periods of 3 years or more, they begin to remove some of the natural flavors and vibrancy of the wine. On the other hand, with natural corks, customers run the risk of the occasional corked bottle. We now spend about 4 times what we used to spend per natural cork to get acceptable ones, about $0.50/cork, which amounted to over $40,000 last year. While most super-premium wines will remain largely with natural corks for the foreseeable future, I would guess that much of the synthetic cork usage will shift toward screwcaps, for both cost and quality reasons. I hope your readers will chime in; we would be interested to hear their thoughts.
Art Hunt
Hunt Country Vineyards