Why New York's Wine Industry is Banking on Cabernet Franc
New York vintners have elevated Cabernet Franc to 'signature red' status with intention.
An autumn lunch at Café Carmellini in Manhattan pairing eight Cabernet Francs from three New York wine regions returned me to a conversation I had with Jordan Small, second-generation vintner at Woodward Canyon Winery in Walla Walla, while visiting the Evergreen State last August. Woodward Canyon became the region’s second bonded winery in 1981. The topic was one that recurs within the wine industry: Must wine regions market identity through the vessel of signature grape varieties, as Napa has with Cabernet Sauvignon and Oregon with Pinot Noir, to achieve visibility?
The question contains a larger one. To ensure the industry’s health and longevity, wine regions must recruit and retain wine drinkers and instill within them the capacity for lifelong wine appreciation—what is the most efficient and effective way to do that? Attracting visitors beyond state lines is crucial, as is recruiting in-state consumers who will revisit the tasting room and share their state’s distinct micro-regions and wineries with a measure of pride.
Regional signatures drive tourism. Dialing into a varietal or style and tasting to understand its range and expression is fun, as is embarking on quests, crossing wine regions off the bucket list, and correlating places with specialties, as Maine is to lobster rolls, North Carolina to barbecue, the northern Rhône to Syrah, Rías Baixas to Albariño, and so on.
“We never latched onto a signature grape, and at this point it’s hard to do, even though we have amazing Merlot and love Merlot for Washington. We do many things well, and have a spectrum of styles and varietals and vineyard sites—how you market that as cool and fun is a question we are really digging into right now,” says Small. Telling the state’s story on a broader scale, such that beverage directors and proprietors feel a void without a Washington wine section, and a selection of Walla Walla wines, for example, is a next step.
“To me, success looks like us not having to tell that story at all. With Napa, you know it already. In twenty years, if we don’t have to do a deep explanation of Washington and Walla Walla, that’s success,” says Small.
Why Cabernet Franc is New York’s Gateway Grape
New York vintners from the Finger Lakes, Hudson River Region, and Long Island are centering Cabernet Franc as a flagship red varietal to tell the state’s wine story.
The campaign, Cab Franc Forward, is led by Gabriella Macari, director of operations of Macari Vineyards on Long Island’s North Fork, and Max Rohn, the CEO of Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack, New York. It’s proving effective for a reason that Small touched upon—it tells the truest story possible. Rather than fashioning or forcing a message, Cabernet Franc authentically distinguishes the state’s terroirs while evincing the crucial benchmarks of world class red wine, structure and ageability.
Keith Beavers, the tastings director at VinePair, describes Cabernet Franc as “an orphan and a traveling variety,” thought to originate in the Basque Country before making its way to Brittany, the Loire, Bordeaux, and beyond.
“It will always reflect its terroir,” he explains, noting that Cabernet Franc vineyards across from one another will achieve different expressions.
The question is, says Macari, “New Yorkers are proud people—proud of New York City, their sports teams, pizza, soft pretzels—can they feel pride around this grape?”
Josh Nadel, Master Sommelier and beverage director for NoHo Hospitality Group (including Café Carmellini), describes the need to consciously change the conversation about “emerging” wine regions, as they “belong in the global conversation without training wheels or helpers.” He compares Cabernet Franc now to where Albariño and Grüner Veltliner were decades ago—both have since have surged in popularity and visibility.
“New York’s vintners offer fifty years of experience doing the same thing in the same place, and that history inspires and excites consumers,” he explains.
On the Palate: A Study in Contrast
In different degrees, New York State Cabernet Francs balance red and dark fruit and savory, herbal notes, while showing nuance with tannins and oak influence.
Kevin Zraly, a preeminent wine writer, educator and the originator of the Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, led a recent Cab Franc Forward tasting in Manhattan along with Beavers, Nadel, and Kimberly Livingston Prokoshyn, an accomplished sommelier and wine buyer for Dunn & Sons on Cape Cod. Zraly offered the textbook comparison of skim milk, whole milk, and heavy cream to capture how each wine’s “delicacy and finesse” ultimately clarifies when its tasted alongside food and through the lenses of light, medium, or full-bodied.
Roman Roth, the winemaker at Wölffer Estate Vineyards, perceives New York wines as of the “most food friendly,” as cooler climates support acid-retention during the growing season. In Long Island examples, Cabernet Franc’s savory, herbal notes complement cherries and and dark fruit characters. Beavers describes Caya, a Wölffer Cabernet Franc with a small measure of old vine Merlot, as a “food wine through and through,” with acidity and balance forefront. On the North Fork, Cabernet Franc expressions impart a signature trace of salinity that coheres Long Island wines. Macari’s Horses pet-nat Cabernet Franc comprises a vital high-acid wine with refreshing raspberry and strawberry notes; Paumanok Vineyards’ 2024 “Minimalist” Cabernet Franc and Lieb Vineyards 2023 estate Cabernet Franc are fruit baskets of juicy black cherry and raspberry.
By contrast, Finger Lakes expressions reflect, as Prokoshyn describes, elegant wines “with the tension of tannins.” She notes that Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard’s 2023 Magdalena Vineyard Cabernet Franc, grown on a warmer site ten miles north of the winery, is about “darker fruit, structural tension, with lots to unravel.” Wiemer planted vines in the 1970s, and Magdalena Vineyard Cabernet Franc proved “eye-openingly delicious” over time, explains Fred Merwarth, head winemaker and co-owner. Cabernet Franc from Boundary Breaks and the Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery impart summery dark fruit, a bounty of cherry and blackberry, with palate innervating acidity.
In the Hudson River Region, growing sites benefit from maritime air, and wines elegantly assert savory characters. Fjord Vineyards 2024 estate Cabernet Franc is juicy and fresh, and green pepper notes are integrated. Benmarl Winery’s (the oldest vineyard in America, and owned by Fjord vintners Matthew Spaccarelli and Casey Erdmann) 2022 estate Cabernet Franc converges dark fruit, freshness, and spice.
Prokoshyn says these many junctures “make Cabernet Franc an exciting variety, as it can be lighter, fresher, and juicier” while evoking darker fruit notes and tension. “We are creating this identity in this moment—it is happening,” says Prokoshyn.
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Most recently, Emily Cappiello writes for Forbes, “While some worry that naming signature grapes could pigeonhole a region, leaders on both coasts argue the opposite. Signature varietals are meant to attract attention, not restrict creativity.” On the other hand, in this 2020 story for VinePair, Tim McKirdy argues, “While signature varieties offer an avenue to quick-fire recognition, they can harm a region’s prospects in the long run—especially if value and affordability are woven into their identities.” What are your thoughts?