Today we’re going to bring the bistro home. We’ll keep things relaxed, but elegant, and above all tasty with an easy-going red blend from the Loire Valley and a simple spread of pork rillettes with a salad and fresh-baked bread. No need to overthink things – just kick back and enjoy.
A Cocktail of Loire Valley Red Grapes
We’ve visited the Loire Valley in north-central France, several times before, and we’re likely to head there many more times in the future since I find it to be a treasure trove of affordable, food-friendly wines. Ideal for accompanying a bistro meal.
It’s a long region that follows the Loire River from the center of the country to the sea. Because it’s such a long region, the terroir varies A LOT, and there many different grapes are grown throughout it. Among the red grapes, the variety it’s probably best known for is Cabernet Franc, but there are many others, many of which you don’t hear all that much about. Today’s wine includes two others. Côt makes up the majority of the blend, along with Cab Franc, and a splash of Gamay, the grape that is usually associated with Beaujolais.
Côt is really just the local name for a grape we’ve explored many times before – Malbec. Here, Malbec tends to take on more herbal and earthy notes, and will usually have higher levels of acidity than versions from Argentina, and even when compared to its homeplace of Cahors since the Loire is cooler and farther north. It’s not as common in the region as it once was, but isn’t unusual to find it in red blends from the mid-Loire regions like Anjou and Touraine, and often as a part of this trio with Cab Franc and Gamay.
Anne-Cecile Jadaud Côtillon Rouge 2018
Anne-Cecile Jadaud is an oenologist and she usually works in partnership with viticulturist Tanguy Perrault. The couple met while teaching at the lycée viticole at Amboise. Each of them spent a decade working in a wine before starting their own project together. For her part, Anne-Cécile, spent that time working as a consulting enologist in southern France before returning to the Loire (she’s a native of Tours) to teach and make their wines. The Perrault-Jadaud wines focus on Chenin Blanc. The couple works eight hectares of organically-farmed vines near their home and winery in Chançay, in the northeastern portion of Vouvray.
Anne-Cecile also loves red wines, however, and she also makes a few red cuvées, which she bottles under her own name. Today’s wine is one of these. The Côtillon Rouge 2018 is a red field blend made from grapes from a friend’s vineyards that are about to be certified BIO/organic. (There was also 2019, but from what I’ve seen online that one was all Côt.)
While I wasn’t able to find a tech sheet on this specific wine, the rest of Perrault-Jadaud wines are made via natural fermentations and with as little SO2 as possible, and I don’t doubt that this was the case for this wine as well. There was no oak used on this wine.
As we took our first sips of the wine, Greg commented that this was “a wild red,” and it definitely had a wild edge. A cotillon is a French country dance, so I think this wine is Côt in a playful dance, perhaps even a raucous one as suggested by the label. It’s a natural wine and certainly had that slightly feral quality natural wines often have, so perhaps it’s not for everyone. There was a bit of brett in the mix, and it might have also benefited from decanting, although I didn’t do so this time. However, accompanying the wine’s wild side there was rich, dark, bright fruit. On the nose, there were blackberries and black cherries, along with lots of herbs and wildflowers. On the palate, the fruit was dark and juicy, seasoned with white pepper, a bit of game, and stony minerality. While the alcohol on this wine was only 13% ABV, it read as a bigger wine, and there was plenty of freshness to add vibrancy.
As far as no-thought, “bistro” reds are concerned, this VERY RARE and sumptuous hand-made treat (courtesy of 2018 and Anne-Cecile Jadaud) is at the top of the bargain heap. It will pair with everything from grilled burgers to cassoulet to a plate of thinly sliced San Daniele to a no-fuss afternoon throwing touchdown passes with your 10 year old.
I liked the bistro allusion, as well as the ideas of charcuterie and richer, even gamey fare. That was all playing in my mind as I looked for cooking inspiration online. Then I came across a recipe for Rillettes des Tours, which seemed to bring everything together perfectly. It’s exactly the kind of thing I’d order at a bistro-style restaurant. It’s a bit decadent, yet easy-going, and even comes from the same region as our winemaker and wine to boot.
If you’ve never had rillettes (pronounced “ree-yets”), it’s kind of like pulled pork meets confit, meets a very rustic pâté. The pork (or other meat) is slow-cooked in fat for several hours, then is shredded up and covered in fat. It was originally meant as a preservation technique because covering the meat in fat creates an anaerobic environment that protects the meat from spoiling. It’s not at all hard to do, but it does take a long time, so just be sure to plan in advance.
I used this recipe from Epicurious, although instead of using fatback as indicated by the recipe, I used bacon fat. I always reserve bacon fat whenever I can because it’s delicious, so I had about a cup on hand, and I saved myself from having to buy an extra ingredient. It worked perfectly, although I think I could have easily gotten away with cutting down the amount to ⅔ cup or even ½ cup. The recipe indicates that you should wait two days before eating the rillettes, but we waited only about 8 hours and they were delicious as was. I split the total amount into three small containers and will be storing two in the freezer so that we’ll be set up for future bistro nights. The total amount created by the recipe would be A LOT for two people to eat in one sitting.
We spread the rillettes on crusty homemade bread and ate them with pickled veggies and mustard. They made a perfect pairing for the wine as the wine cut through the fattiness of the rillettes, while their richness helped the to tame the wine’s wild side.
I served a salad with goat cheese and sliced Anjou pear (to keep with the theme) and a vinaigrette made with an aged balsamic vinegar that was slightly sweet alongside the rillettes and toast. The salad didn’t really pair with the wine, but I’d argue that a salad is an almost necessary counterpoint to the rich rillettes.
It was an altogether delightful meal that succeeded in bringing the bistro vibe home.
*****
For more posts related to the Loire Valley check out:
The rest of the French Winophiles (#winophiles) are exploring French wines by women winemakers in honor of Women's History Month. Be sure to check out the rest of their posts:
I think I’ve made my appreciation of France’s Loire Valley known. It produces an incredibly diverse array of food-friendly wines, many at very reasonable prices. This region, with its plethora of romantic chateaux (I sooooooo want to visit), is also a treasure trove for wine drinkers interested in sustainable, organic, biodynamic, and natural wines. About 30% of Loire Valley vineyards today are farmed sustainably or organically, with the numbers increasing each year. Moreover, many of the country’s most celebrated and earliest adopters of these practices come from the banks of the Loire River.
Today we’re opening a bottle from one of those celebrated OG’s of organics/biodynamics – Domaine Huet. This domaine has been a standard-bearer for Vouvray, and by extension Chenin Blanc, for a very long time. They make wines in the spanning Chenin’s full range – sparkling, dry, semi-dry, and dessert styles. I’ve never had a bottle from Huet that wasn’t freak’n delicious!
The domaine was founded in 1928 after Victor Huët, formerly a Parisian bistro owner returned from World War II with shattered nerves and lungs. He resettled in Vouvray and purchased the first of the domaine’s famed vineyards, Le Haut-Lieu. Victor’s son Gaston worked with his father from the very start and built up the winery’s reputation for quality over the next 55 years.He eventually brought on his son-in-law, Noël Pinguet, and 1979 by chef de culture, Jean-Bernard Berthomé. As Gaston got older he decided he needed a partner and ultimately brought on New Yorker Anthony Hwang. Today the domaine is owned and operated by his children, brother-sister duo, Sarah & Hugo Hwang, who have worked hard to preserve the legacy by maintaining key members of the team.
The vineyards at Domaine Huet have always been worked without chemicals, but in the late 1980s Gaston Huët, Pinguet, and Bertholmé heard grape grower François Bouchet extolling the benefits of biodynamics at a conference, and decided to try it out for themselves. They put the principles into practice in 1988, by 1990 all of their vineyards were being farmed biodynamically, and they received their Demeter certification in 1993.
Sarah Hwang described the domaine’s history with biodynamics in a 2019 article for SevenFiftyDaily:
“Never in the history of the estate have we used chemical fertilizers or pesticides . . . After the Second World War, there was a harmony that was lost,” says Hwang. “Biodynamics offered the possibility of reconnecting with nature. For us, the philosophy is really about balance.”
Chenin’s high acidity makes it a good candidate for aging in general, and when made by a winery of the caliber of Domain Huet’s, it’s very likely that you have a bottle that can be easily laid down for a very long time. Sugar is another preservative, and moelleux is among the sweetest styles of Vouvray. (If you see the term liquoreux, that’s the sweetest style, but this is up there.) All together this 2006 was alive and kick’n – no sweat. In fact, we accidentally left the bottle out overnight after opening it, not realizing there was a little wine left in the bottle – the wine was still totally fine when I tried it the next morning.
Moelleux styles are also typically botrytized wines and showed the honeyed character and complexity that goes with noble rot. (Check out this post for a more in-depth description of botrytis.) Because noble rot affects grapes unevenly, growers working with botrytized grapes will often collect them in various “tries” or passes through the vineyards. Première Tries, therefore, means “first selection” and essentially indicates that the wine is made from the best grapes of the vintage.
Huet has three principal vineyards – Le Haut-Lieu, Le Mont, and Clos du Bourg. All three are located on Vouvray’s “Première Côte” (or “first slope”), home to the majority of the region’s best vineyards – basically, the Grand Cru of the area. Today’s bottle comes from Clos du Bourg, an ancient, walled vineyard. Gaston Huet believed it to be the greatest of all Vouvray vineyards as it has the Première Côte’s shallowest, stoniest soils. The wines tend to balance intense minerality and generous texture.
On the day we opened this bottle, I picked up notes of candied grapefruit, tangerine, ginger, and honeysuckle on the nose. The wine was very layered on the palate. The tangerine and honeyed grapefruit notes were joined by bruised golden apples and dried tropical fruits. This is definitely a sweet wine, but the sweetness is balanced by a pleasant hint of bitterness like grapefruit pith was mixed in, as well as earthy notes of straw and stones, and even a touch of chamomile. Greg compared it to pink grapefruit lemonade sweetened with honey.
Although this is a dessert wine, I thought I’d try to create an entrée to pair with it. I immediately thoughts of duck a l’orange. The tiny hint of bitterness I picked in the wine also made me think of gastrique, which blends sugar and a sour element like citrus juice or vinegar. That’s the idea I ran with and chose a mixture of grapefruit and lemon juice to create a version of this sweet-and-sour sauce.
The sauce topped simply prepared sous vide pork tenderloin. I really think sous vide cooking is ideal for preparing pork tenderloin since it makes this otherwise easy-to-overcook cut pretty foolproof. To complete the dish, I roasted some sliced carrots which were glazed in a bit of the gastrique and tossed with wilted kale and a little blue cheese.
It was a very good match as the flavors in the wine and the dish mirrored each other nicely. The blue cheese made for a great salty contrast. In fact, I liked how those two worked so well that I cut a couple of additional slices of cheese for us to enjoy with the wine after dinner. The wine also wasn’t half bad with dark salted chocolate with almond, complementing the chocolate the way it might work with candied oranges.
GEEKY DETAILS
The current average price on this wine is $99. The release price is usually in the $60-$70 range.
Alcohol: 12.5%
If Vouvray is new to you, I invite you to check out this post where you’ll find a cheat sheet on the background and details of the region. Here's an infographic from WineFolly.com that shares the basics on Vouvray.
I couldn’t a find tech sheet describing the winemaking for this wine (neither for current nor past vintages) but you can find additional information on the winery and its wines the Rare Wine Co.and Polaner Selections.
One more quick note, Domaine Huet has always held back a good percentage of wines, so it’s not uncommon to find library vintages out in the world. They’re a good bet if you’re interested in older vintages since both the house and the grape are known for their ageability.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES
As I mentioned above, I think this would be fantastic with duck à l'orange, as well as with Peking Duck, and other sweeter Asian dishes.
It’d also be perfect with strong cheeses and fruit desserts, particularly those featuring peaches, apples, pears, or candied citrus. I’m conjuring up images of apple strudel.
For a dessert pairing, consider this Cinnamon Apple Crème Brûlée. I think you could easily swap the wines and pairings in these two posts.
LoireValleyWine.comrecommends sweet styles of Vouvray “as an aperitif, or with desserts featuring apples, pears, nougat or almond paste; blue cheese such as Fourme d’Ambert, Roquefort and Bleu d’Auvergne.”
*****
sous vide, pork tenderloin, gastrique, sweet-and-sour
dinner
French
Servings: 4
By: Nicole Ruiz Hudson
Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin with Citrus Gastrique and Roasted Carrots with Kale and Blue Cheese
Prep Time: 10 MinCooking Time: 1 H & 10 MTotal Time: 1 H & 20 M
Ingredients
For the pork:
1 pork tenderloin
⅛ tsp white pepper
⅛ tsp ginger
⅛ tsp onion powder
2 to 4 sprigs of thyme
lemon and/or grapefruit zest, a generous pinch, optional
Salt, as needed
Olive oil
For the carrots and kale:
1 bunch of medium carrots, about 8, sliced into approximately ½” pieces
2 to 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, or as needed
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 shallot, finely minced
2 to 3 sprigs of thyme
2 cups chopped kale
¼ cup crumbled blue cheese, or to taste
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
For the gastrique:
½ cup of sugar
2 Tbsp of water, or as needed
Juice of 1 lemon, reserve the zest for use on the pork and as garnish
Juice of ½ a grapefruit (about ½ a cup), reserve the zest for use on the pork and as garnish, optional
1 or 2 sprigs of thyme
Pinch of salt
Instructions
Set up sous vide immersion circulator and preheat water to desired final cooking temperature–In this case, I set it to 129°F for medium-rare. (Searing the pork at the final stage brought it closer to the medium by the end.)
Preheat the oven to 375°F
Prepare the Pork. Place the pork tenderloin in a heavy-duty, food-grade zipper bag. Season with the white pepper, ginger, onion powder, and salt, as well as a pinch of citrus zest if using. Drizzle with a little olive oil and add in the sprigs of thyme. Seal the bag using a vacuum sealer or via the water displacement method. Cook for 1 hour. (Note: To use the water displacement method, zip up the majority of the bag leaving just an inch or open at the end. Lower the bag into the water–as you do so, the water on the outside of the bag will push out the remaining air in the bag. Once the bag is lowered the majority of the way into the water, zip up the remainder of the bag.)
Prepare the carrots. Place the sliced carrots in a medium roasting pan – the pan just needs to be big enough to be able to arrange the carrot slices in roughly a single layer. Toss with the a generous pour of olive oil (about 2 tablespoons), apple cider vinegar, the Dijon mustard, the shallots, and generous pinches of salt and pepper. Add the sprigs of thyme. (You can pick the thyme leaves, but I find they tend separate from the sprig on their own while roasting.)
Roast the carrots in the oven and roast for about one hour total, stirring after 25 to 30 minutes. I’d recommend checking on them after 45 to 50 minutes to gauge their doneness. They’re ready when a knife or fork inserted into them slides in with little resistance, but you can let them go longer if you prefer them softer and/or more caramelization.
Make the gastrique while the pork and carrots are cooking. Stir together the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium to medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and cook until the mixture turns deep caramel to amber (about 6 to 8 minutes), gently swirling or stirring occasionally to make sure the sugar is fully incorporated. (Don’t stray too far away, once the color begins to turn, it darkens quickly.) Reduce the heat, and mix in the citrus juices to the caramel – be careful and stand back just in case the mixture spits and splatters. Add the thyme sprigs and a pinch of salt, and allow the mixture to continue to reduce for a few minutes until it reaches a syrupy consistency. If the mixture becomes too thick, add a little more water or juice to loosen it up again. Keep warm until ready to serve.
Once the carrots have cooked to the desired level, pour just enough gastrique on top to lightly glaze them once tossed, then set the rest aside again and keep warm. Toss the kale on top and place it all back in the oven for a couple of more minutes while the kale wilts. Toss and taste, and keep warm until ready to serve.
Finish the pork. Remove the pork tenderloin from the bag and pat dry with paper towels. Heat a small amount of olive oil (or cooking oil of your choice) in a large pan over high heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the pork and sear until golden brown on all sides. Transfer the pork to a cutting board. Brush the tenderloin with a little gastrique and slice.
Toss the carrots and kale with blue cheese crumbles just before serving. Serve the pork sliced on a bed of the vegetables, with a little gastrique spooned on top or on the plate, and the rest of the gastrique on the side. Garnish with extra citrus zest if desired.
Today, we’re taking deep dive into one of my favorite red grapes –– Cabernet Franc! It’s often cast aside in favor of its more famous child, Cabernet Sauvignon, but we buck that trend in this house. For one thing, I find this grape’s complex aromas to be extremely compelling, and for another, I find Cab Franc to be one of the most food-friendly of red grapes.
This is actually the second time we’re putting this grape under the proverbial microscope on this blog. Last year, we took a look at 5 Cali Cab Francs; today we’re going to compare three bottles from France, California, and Oregon.
Cab Franc is an ancient grape, and like a lot of grapes that have roaming around this earth for a long time, it’s origins aren’t 100% certain. It’s likely though that it was born either in southwestern France or in the Basque region of Spain –– so on one side of the Pyrenees mountains or the other. From there it made its way to Bordeaux and to the Loire Valley. It’s said that Cardinal Richelieu chose this grape to be planted at the Abbaye de St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil in the Loire by an abbot called Breton, because it was already well-respected in the South West. Thanks to this connection, “Breton” is still used as a synonym for the grape in the Loire.
As is also often the case with ancient grapes, this one has been quite promiscuous over the years and has had many children. You could say that Cab Franc gave rise to one of the greatest dynasties in the wine world. Cabernet Sauvignon is the product of a tryst between Cab Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s also a parent to Merlot and Carmenère. Therefore, Cab Franc is responsible for the majority of the BDX clan of grapes.
The Cab Franc Family Tree. Borrowed from WineFolly.com.
While Cab Franc might be the OG of BDX, it tends to get third place in importance there, coming behind two of its kids. Cab Sauv holds dominion over the blends of the Left Bank, and Merlot presides over the Right Bank. (The wines of Château Cheval Blanc are one famous exception, as they do give Cab Franc the lion’s share of their blend.)
Cab Franc found its own kingdom in the Loire Valley, specifically in the sub-regions of Touraine and Anjou, where it gets to be the star. Chinon and Bourgueil are probably the two most famous appellations for the grape here. Here it makes elegant, often aromatic wines with bright acidity, medium body, and moderate to low-tannins that are extremely food-friendy. There are also plenty of good bottles to choose from that aren’t very expensive, and often from small, conscientious producers. It basically checks all the boxes on my list of requirements for a go-to red wine that easy to pair, so we drink A LOT of it.
I love it, but I do recognize that Cab Franc can be divisive. This is largely due to the fact that the grape tends to be high in pyrazines, a set of compounds that create green notes in a wine, which can show up as anything from herbs to full-on green bell pepper or jalapeño. These notes put a lot of people off, but they can come across in such different ways that I really think it’s worth exploring different styles. Also, if you’re a veggie-lover that loves red, Cab Franc should really be on your radar, since it’s a natural companion for a lot of green veggies.
Loire Valley Cab Francs can show red to black fruit flavors like raspberries, blackberries, and currants, hints of graphite, pencil shavings, and stones, and cigar box. Most particularly for me, there’s usually there’s a bouquet of wildflower, pepper, and mixed herb notes that waft out of the glass.
New World styles can vary, but will often have much deeper, darker fruit notes, often accompanied by chocolate notes, and a range of pepper notes that range from bell pepper, to jalapeño, to roasted peppers. They can also sometimes register like a Cab Sauv with less aggressive tannins and comparatively more of those green notes. There are a few of those in last year’s round-up of California examples.
The examples from Oregon and California in today’s line-up, though, could be described as Old Wolrd-style New World wines. The first night, I poured tastes for Greg and me using my Corvin, so that we could compare them side-by-side. What I happily found was the three wines were very much in dialogue with each other. It was kind of like they were all speaking the language, but with slightly different accents. I’ve gotta say, I really enjoyed the conversation.
I received the New World bottles as samples for participation in Cab Franc Day on December 4th (started and organized by Lori Budd of Dracaena Wines), and as part of the celebration, I participated in a Twitter Chat that also included the winemakers. I asked both of them about the Loire influence, and sure enough, both said they’d spent time there and that the wines played an influence in their style. As well, both of those wines come from cooler climate areas, which also likely plays a big factor in putting these closer in style to the Loire Valley than versions from warmer regions in the New World.
We’ll take a look at each wine specifically, but here was the line-up for the evening:
(Note: While two of these bottles were samples, no other compensation was received, and all opinions are my own.)
On the first night, we tasted the wines, we tried them with herby lamb meatballs with Israeli couscous with root vegetables lightly seasoned with za'atar and a little labneh on the side (recipe follows). All of the wines worked solidly well with the meatballs, but the two of us were agreed on a definitive favorite pairing for the dish. Not to worry though, the other two wines got to shine with their own parings on subsequent evenings.
Olga Raffault 'Picasses' Chinon 2012
Average price: Currently $45 for this vintage. I think I purchased it in the low $30’s a couple of years ago, which is inline with the usual release prices.
This is a classic example of quality, a ageable Cab Franc from the Loire, which is why I chose it to be my control subject and standardbearer as an Old World representative in this line up. I personally have lots of good memories with these wines as well. It’s a great option at a restaurant when you when something that’s likely to fit many things at the table, but would rather not get a really pricey bottle, and I’ve ordered it more than once for that very reason. For one example, and a particularly happy memory, we had a bottle of Olga Raffault when we had dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns shortly before we moved from New York.
The estate has a really interesting history. Olga and her husband Pierre operated it together until he died unexpectedly just before harvest in 1947, leaving her to run the business and raise two small children. She luckily found help in Ernest Zenninger, a German prisoner who had found refuge and work at Raffault at the end of the war. Ernest stayed on, becoming the winemaker (Olga herself was never the winemaker) and working closely with Olga’s son Jean Raffault. The two of them ran the estate as a team for decades, under Olga’s watchful eye. Jean’s daughter Sylvie and her husband Eric de la Vigerie have been running the estate for over 10 years.
The farming is certified organic and the grapes are harvested manually. They take a minimalist approach in the vineyard and the cellar. Les Picasses is their flagship Cabernet Franc coming from a renowned lieu-dit. Les Picasses is the most structured, powerful and age-worthy of their reds.
100% Cabernet Franc Vineyard and Farming: Les Picasses is the most famous lieu-dit in Chinon, close to the village of Beaumont-En-Véron on the north bank of the Vienne River. It is a slope with full southern exposure and chalky clay-limestone soils, the combination results in fully ripened, structured wines. The Raffault family owns a considerable amount of the lieu dit, around 50% of its 20+ hectares. While other producers bottle as Les Picasses, the Raffault's is viewed of the benchmark expression of this famous terroir. A big reason of that is the family's patience in releasing the wines when they deem them ready to drink: on average six to seven years after it was harvested. The farming is certified organic and the vines are harvested by hand. Age of vines: 40 to 50+ years old. Winemaking: The fruit is destemmed and the whole, uncrushed berries are fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tank; fermentation and maceration last for 25-30 days, depending on the vintage. The wine is aged for 2-3 years in oak and chestnut foudres ranging from 30-50 hectoliters; it is then bottle aged until deemed ready for release (often a minimum of four years). Three grams of S02 are added per hectoliter on the harvest and with an addition of one to three grams at bottling. Alcohol: 12.5%
Tasting & Pairing Notes
This was the oldest wine in the line-up and it was showing some signs of age in the flavor profile, but in an attractive way. On the nose there were notes of dried flower petals and orange skin mixed in with red fruit notes. On the palate, black cherry, raspberry, currant, and a little cranberry mixed with mixed herb notes, bay leaf, tobacco, black tea, and savory green tapenade.
This was my 2nd favorite wine with the lamb meatballs, as more fruit emerged from the wine in the combo, but also more notes showing the dried leaf character. We revisited the wine a couple of nights later with pork chops flavored with cumin seeds and mustard based on this recipe from NYT Cooking (I also added some thyme), along with a side of roasted broccoli rabe and few roasted potatoes, and the wine really came alive then. It showed more brightness in that pairing and resonated beautifully with the savory flavorings.
Yorkville Cellars Cabernet Franc Yorkville Highlands 2018
Deborah and Edward Wallo are the founders and growers of Yorkville Cellars. They read about Mendocino County in Sunset magazine in the mid-eighties and were inspired to check it out. They started looking for land the week after their first visit. They quickly fell in love with a 110 acre ranch in Yorkville with three beautiful ancient oaks that they also intuitively felt had the potential to grow excellent grapes.
The property already had a few acres of Sauvignon Blanc that had been sorely neglected. They employed the help of a dedicated vineyard manager and began to apply organic practices, and gradually revived those vines and expanded the vineyards to 30 acres over time. They bottled their first estate wines in 1994.
The couple each grew up in families where wine was regularly on the table at dinnertime. Moreover, they had the chance to in various places around Europe, including in Italy, Germany, and France. These experiences expanded their love of wine and influenced their style.
Winemaking: After a careful field selection, the grapes were gently crushed, and cold soaked for three days before inoculation with Pasteur Red yeast. Fermentation was held at a constant 80°F for 14 days and then the wine was gently pressed and racked to French oak barrels for aging. After 14 months the wines were settled, fined, and gently filtered before bottling. Lovely now, or hold up to 3 to 8 years. Alcohol: 13.5%
Tasting & Pairing Notes
This wine was new to me and we both really enjoyed it. On the nose their were notes of black cherry, a splash of cranberry, sprigs of mixed herbs, and hints of sweet spice. Bay leaf and black tea joined in on the palate. In many ways, the profile was very similar to the example from the Loire Valley, but the fruit quality was a little richer and riper, and it also has plenty of brightness. I thought it stuck a really nice balance in terms of California Cab Franc styles – it wasn’t as big as many, but not as light as others. It showed both nice California fruit character and also good varietal typicity. Well balanced all around.
This was the favorite pairing with our lamb meatballs for both Greg and I. I found the pairing tamed a hint of bitterness I found in the wine’s herbal notes and rounded out the wine. Greg added that the wine elevated the richness of the dish and brought a little something new as well. Given that, we opened up the bottle and finished it with the meatballs.
Their website also notes: “We often serve Cab Franc with roast pork or turkey as it is very versatile and food-friendly. It is ‘The Cab for White Meat.’”
Leah Jørgensen Cellars Cabernet Franc Southern Oregon 2018
I first had the chance to try Leah Jørgensen’s wines a couple of years ago, and was very excited to receive samples for the Cab Franc Day event! Cab Franc is the focus of her production, eventhough she does work with a few other varieties.
Jørgensen’s grew up in Washington, DC metropolitan area. She developed a passion for the Loire Valley while she lived there, working for the wholesale company that represented Louis Dressner Selections.
In 2004, she made her way out to Oregon, where her dad grew up and ended up working in many aspects of the wine industry there. She started out working in national sales, marketing, and communications for pioneering wineries in the Pacific Northwest, and then moved on to offering marketing consulting for a handful of wineries. She also worked harvests and spent two years doing cellar work at Shea Wine Cellars, while making plans for her own wine. She debuted her first vintage in 2011 with an unusual choice – just a barrel’s worth of her now signature, limited Blanc de Cabernet Franc. (I also received a bottle of this and will hopefully be returning to it here soon. I’ve had it before, and it is truly cool and unique.)
On her website she also answers a list of 10 “Proust-ish” questions that make me like her all the more. Perhaps most of all, I love that she refers to herself as a Pirate Princess in her title in addition to being the owner and winemaker. I too have always wanted to be a Pirate Princess.
Geeky Details
Taken from the tech sheet.
100% Cabernet Franc Vineyard and Farming: Grapes were sourced from Crater View Ranch and Sundown Vineyard. Both are L.I.V.E Certified. You can also read more about Jørgensen’s commitment to sustainability here. Winemaking: Both lots were sored, de-stemmed, and crushed lightly (half whole berry, half crushed) , followed by a 4-day cold soak. Fermentation commenced at 55°F, so as to maintain a slow and steady fermentation, with manual punch downs twice daily. The wine was aged in mostly neutral French Oak barrels, along with some stainless steel, to tone down the intensity from the skin and wood tannins. A slow-steady malo-lactic fermentation completed in three months. The wine was racked, blended, then filtered prior to bottling. Alcohol: 14%
Tasting & Pairing Notes
This was the most aromatically effusive of the three wines. A pretty bouquet of herbs and wildflowers jumper right out of the glass on the nose, along with sweet black cherries. The wine also showed notes of sweet smoke, which particularly came out on the second night we tried the wine after allowing it to get some air. It was also very expressive on the palate with bright cherries, raspberries, and cranberries, as well as notes of thyme, lavender other wild flowers, and mixed peppercorns.
This was Greg’s 2nd favorite pairing with the lamb meatballs, as he felt it matched the tone of that dish nicely.
Jørgensen participated in the Cab Franc Day Twitter chat, and I have to say I really appreciated that she was very engaged in answering questions. As such, I reached out and asked for some of her favorite pairings. She kindly responded via Twitter message: “pasta with any red sauce - esp arrabbiata. Roast chicken and root veggies, pan seared or smoked trout with rosemary, garlic and buttered potatoes.”
The trout and garlic potatoes recommendation intrigued me, but I was unable to find any at the store, so I went with a pan-seared salmon, to which I added garlic, thyme, and a lavender and lemon herb salt. I roasted sliced potatoes and added sliced garlic during the last few minutes of cooking. It paired beautifully! The smoky notes in the wine worked perfectly with the toasty notes in the potatoes, garlic, and crisped salmon skin. It didn’t over-power the fish and resonated with the herb notes.
The tech sheet also recommends the following pairings: Barbeque (especially dry rubbed ribs); steak frites, and other meats like lamb, duck, or beef filet with aromatic herbs; pizza; vegetables dishes – especially with broccoli and mushrooms; Mediterranean foods (Greek, Italian, Middle Eastern); cheese (blue, Camembert, Gorgonzola, aged or smoked cheddar, Gouda, and Wensleydale.
Altogether, we had three lovely Cab Franc evenings!
Herby Lamb Meatballs with Israeli Couscous and Za’atar Spiced Root Vegetables
Prep Time: 15 MinCooking Time: 43 MinTotal Time: 58 Min
Ingredients
For the Carrots and Cauliflower
1 bunch of carrots, sliced
1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets
Juice of ½ lemon
Olive oil
Salt
½ to 1 tsp za’atar
Sliced green onions, for garnish
For the Israeli Couscous
1 cup Israeli Couscous
1 ½ cup chicken stock or water
½ tsp salt, or as needed
Olive oil
Green onions, for garnish
Cilantro, for garnish (if you don’t like cilantro, feel free to swap in parsley)
For the Lamb Meatballs (Makes approximately 21 medium meatballs)
2 lbs ground lamb meat
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp Cavendars Greek seasoning
3 to 4 finely sliced green onions
¼ to ½ cup cilantro (if you don’t like cilantro, feel free to swap in parsley)
½ tsp cumin seeds, dry toasted in a pan and crushed
2 eggs
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tsp salt
Cooking oil
Labneh, for serving (optional)
Instructions
For the Carrots and Cauliflower
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Toss vegetables with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. Spread the vegetables in a single layer in a baking pan and loosely tent with foil. Place in the oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
Toss the vegetables with za’atar and additional olive oil if needed. Return the vegetables to the oven and continue to cook for another 15 to 20 minutes (30 to 40 minutes total), until the vegetables are cooked through and browned to your liking.
Once cooked, remove from the oven and keep warm until ready to serve. Toss with sliced green onions once ready to serve
For the Couscous
Bring the stock to a boil and add salt and olive oil. Stir in the Israeli couscous, then cover the pot with a lid, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Or cook per according to package instructions. Keep warm until ready to serve.
Once ready to plate, stir in green onions and cilantro.
For the Lamb Meatballs
Combine all ingredients other than the oil in a large bowl.
Make a small test patty. Heat a small amount of oil in a large pan. Cook the test patty, taste, and make any adjustments desired to the seasoning.
Form the rest of the lamb meat mixture into balls.
Heat oil in the pan, then working in batches, cook the meatballs, turning occasionally until browned on all sides and cooked through.
To Serve
Serve the couscous topped with roasted vegetables and 3 to 4 meatballs per serving, and a dollop of labneh on the side, if using.
