The Desert Wine Guy - 2012 Franciscan Cabernet Sauvignon

 

Today I want to talk about about a particular wine that I found simply fascinating. The wine I want to discuss here today is the 2012 Franciscan Estate (http://www.franciscan.com/Story/Estate-Vineyards) Cabernet Sauvignon. Let's start talking about this absolutely amazing wine and exactly how I came across it which I almost think was an error on Costco's part. First though,  a little bit of bad news, as far as I know it is no longer available anywhere. I have searched online and have been unsuccessfully in locating this vintage.  So the bad news  (the only bad news) is out of the way so  I guess I should start from the beginning here and just how I came across this wine.

Franciscan Estates Winery

So Desert Wine Guy exactly how did you come across this wine? Well here is the story. The other day I was sitting around at home and this thought just came into my mind. The thought was that I needed to head to Costco and buy a bottle of wine. I know, weird huh? Why Costco I thought. Yes, it is true, I do love Costco for their wine selection but in reality it is a rather small selection in general. Besides, there is a store near me that is almost as big as a Walmart that sells every type of wine, Liquor or Beer you could ever possibly want or need. I really don't know the answer but I am glad I followed thru on that thought. So anyway Mrs.Desert Wine Girl and I got dressed and we went to our local Costco here in Las Vegas to do some wine buying for me and some shopping for her. When we got to the store I of course headed over to the wine section. During my wandering around in the wine section I happened to come across a wine varietal from a label that I haven't had for a long time. That label was the Franciscan Estate and the varietal was the Cabernet Sauvignon.  The particular wine was the 2013 Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. The Franciscan winery is located in the Oakville AVA of the Napa Valley. Franciscan is actually one of those winery's as is the Peju (http://www.peju.com/) winery that has always stood out in my mind as making one of the wines that has a special note on my Palette. I don't know exactly what it is but I can always spot the Cabernet Sauvignons from these winery's. I don't know if it's something in the soil or what but they definitely stand out on my Palette. So there I am looking at the wooden crate that is holding the 2013 Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and I happened to see at the bottom of the crate the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon. Having done some previous research on that particular wine and vintage I knew that I had to grab not just one but two bottles of this wine, I left two for some other lucky individual.  One bottle I bought was already marked to go into my wine cellar, that is provided the bottle I did a tasting on was as great as I was hearing it was. I am talking about a wine here that is composed of 85% Cab, 9% Merlot, 3% Malbec 2% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc. The wine is put through a pre-fermentation cold soak of 4 days with a macceration time of 22 days. The wine finishes up being aged in small Oak Barrels (25% new) for 20 months. Well anyway, after grabbing the two bottles I met up with my Wife and helped her finish the rest of the shopping. The very next day was review day so I brought a bottle of the 2012 Franciscan Cabernet up to my Loft and proceeded to do a review of this wine. So now the big question is did the other bottle end up in my Cellar after all?  That is a good question and one that I could answer in one word but that wouldn't be fair to you nor the wine itself for that matter. Wines such as this need justification for the review you are about to read. Folks this is going to be one of those reviews that simply cannot be done in a few lines. In order to justify the rating this wine received I do feel that I must justify it and that I will need more that a few lines. While I could in reality jot down a couple of lines and get my point across that really wouldn't allow you to share my experience sufficiently enough to put this wine in the category in which I have it. Besides what kind of review would that be.  I want to really let you know why you should try your hardest to find a couple of bottles for yourself. Now that my little teaser is done I want you to sit back, relax and lets get into this review. We will start with a little bit of information on this winery.

   The Franciscan winery owns about 240 Acres in the Oakville AVA of the Napa Valley. This is the same AVA that wine greats such as Opus One, Swanson as well as Silver Oak own vineyards. The Franciscan winery was founded in 1972 by a group of Lawyers & Doctors from San Francisco. Today the Associate Winemaker is Justin Myers who has also worked for Stags Leap Winery and Beaulieu Vineyards to name a few. They released their first vintage in 1975 and that was also the first vintage released that included fruit from the Oakville property. Having now given a little background into the selection of the wine and the winery itself it is time to get into the heart of the review so lets do that.
   Let's begin at the top. In my glass this powerful 2012 Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon poured a deep, dark Burgundy. A wonderful, rich looking, powerful dark Burgundy at that. The wine actually looked very formidable in appearance visually and showed some nice legs on the side of my glass as well.
   As for the Bouquet there was the semi sweet enticing aroma of Caramel with Cedar and Cocoa which appeared to blend rather nicely when it reached my nose. The Bouquet itself seemed like a complete meal to the nose (weird huh?). To me this wine seemed to exhibit an elegance combined with a dominating power in it's bouquet that I haven't smelled for some time in a wine. To say that I was rather impressed with this wine from the start is an understatement. Now, whether the wine would carry on as far as how the real test was which was on my Palette remained to be seen.
   I don't normally Decant my wine and sometimes I find the wine changing as my tasting goes on which is fine with me but in this case I decided to Decant and see from the beginning what this wine was really about. Having opened this wine and having it Decant now for almost 2 hours I must say that I don't consider this wine to be a fruit forward wine. I'm really happy about this fact because it seems that lately the Cabernet that I have been tasting are rather fruit forward and while that is OK and I have had some excellent wines in that category it is however nice to finally get a wine that is a little more down to business. I think that this wine is also far to busy with other notes to put fruit at the top of it's presentation anyway. This wine as I said IS all about getting down to business. This is simply a good old fashioned Cabernet Sauvignon. You folks who have taken the time to learn the difference between a fruit forward Cabernet and a non fruit forward Cabernet should be able to identify that this wine spends it's time worrying about other more important things. This truly is the reason why the varietal known as Cabernet Sauvignon is still the king of Reds.
   Those of you who love a fair amount of Tannins in their Reds will most certainly be happy here as this wine is loaded with Tannins and at just the perfect levels that seem to coat lightly coat your tongue. Now, I know there are those of you reading this that will determine simply by this review using the word "Tannins" in relation to this wine that his wine is not for you. Those of you who like a wine that is made for a relaxing Patio / pool day or for a mid morning get together should look elsewhere, this is not the wine you want. If that is you there are many other wines out there that will please you and many that I have reviewed and loved myself. If you are interested here (http://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-desert-wine-guy-2011-black-stallion.html) is one of those wines. Sipping on this wine you know you have now tasted a Cabernet the likes of which your parents probably drank. In this wine perfect levels of Cocoa mixed ever so slightly with a smooth Mocha nicely manages to subdue any idea of this wine being fruit forward. A wonderful Dark, Black Cherry note is very prominent here as well. This Dark Black Cherry is like the Cherry's that you would pick from a tree that you would find on the most fertile land. When mixed with the Cocoa & that smooth Mocha the wine simply present a perfect combination of notes of each. There is a medium Chocolate here as well. If you are starting to fear a wine that has no fruit at all take heart because of what comes next. Notes such as a deep, Dark Plum with just the right amount of sugar, pop up. Just when you think a wine in general couldn't provide much more I tasted a lovely Black Berry. A medium weight Black Berry that explodes from almost the beginning of it hitting your Palette. On the classy side there is a sense of Cigar and Oak that really belong here in this wine. These last two notes are what propels this wine above anything else. The combination / blending of all the listed notes make this a truly incredible wine in my book. There is fruit in here and you do taste it but thankfully it is at the perfect level where it does not place these notes front and center but confidently lets the other notes take the lead. This wine is a seriously big, bold and in your face, Red . From the very first sip that you put into your Palette you will notice that this wine is way different from wines that you have probably been tasting lately. From the first sip all the other Cabernets you have ever tasted will pale in comparison. Your mouth will be bathed with aggressive Cassis that meshes every so nicely with the Chocolate type notes. I promise that your tongue will be given a workout over this wine.  I guess you can probably guess that this is not a delicate wine or one for the faint of heart, you simply MUST be a Cabernet Sauvignon drinker to enjoy this wine. The Tannins are not what you would call "smooth" but also not what you would say is overly aggressive either. They certainly make their presence known and you will notice that they are there. Everything that in my opinion places this wine at the pinnacle of it's varietal is bold and "in your face" so to speak. If this wine would attempt to do anymore it would most certainly be to over the top and lose it's high score. Luckily for us it stops and maintains itself at the point it level does. Black Berry explodes in your mouth but somehow manages to avoid the sugar trap. The simply cultured taste of Cigar and Oak are also prominent here.
   So lets try to wrap this up now. The 2012 Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a simply OUTSTANDING wine. A simply INCREDIBLE wine. I think that the Cocoa / Chocolaty type notes play a big hand in the unique Franciscan flavor. Perhaps the note comes directly from the terroir from where the grapes are grown. Big, bold flavors are in abundance here. The wine can be a drink now wine and you will enjoy it should you choose to. You on the other hand can put this wine away for another 8-10 years if you wanted to and it will grow even larger that life. which is probably what this big stuck up wine wants anyway.
   On  The Desert Wine Guy Rating Scale I respectfully give this wine 96 points.

                                                                                                                 The Desert Wine Guy

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The Desert WIne Guy - Keep Your Sugar Out Of My Cabernet Sauvignon

The Bartles & James uys - Dick Maugg (left) & Dave Rufkahr

   Well folks Christmas and New Years are now over and it's time to start off a new year. For many of us that means working on some changes that we think will benefit us and / or our families. This is a time when we all have hopes for a better future. From The Desert Wine Guy Family to yours we wish you good luck in whatever changes or ventures you decide to undertake this year. As for The Desert Wine Guy, this year I am going to attempt to start a YouTube wine review series on my current YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ/videos). I haven't quite decided on how I will format it but that is in the works. I also plan this year to get into some form of sales of wine accessories. Although I do have an Etsy page (https://www.etsy.com/shop/Desertwineguy) currently I plan to pick it up a little, so to speak. I think that that should occupy my year and if I can get those thing started and moving along I will be happy.
   To start off this year I want to talk about those over the top, overly sweet wines. I don't know about you but I am getting kind of tired of those very "fruit forward", overly sweet wines that attempt to (for instance)  pass themselves off as the king of the Red grape, Cabernet Sauvignon. It seems that there are so very many of these reds floating around and from every vineyard and winery at that.

Common Table Sugar

   To begin with let me clarify something.  The wines that I am definitely NOT referring to are the reds that are slightly on the sweeter side or "jammy" but are complimented by the other notes in the wine. These wines are fine and I have no problem with them. Sometimes a little sweetness just adds to the complexity of a red wine and further enhances it. As I said, these are not the Cabernet Sauvignons that I am referring to. I am talking about the Cabernet's that are sugar dominate or "sugar bombs" as I have begun calling them. If you check the wines that I have reviewed on this blog you will see that I actually prefer a slightly sweet or fruit forward wine. As I said, if they are combined with other notes that are at similar levels they are fine. To me they can even in some cases reach the 90 point rating on The Desert Wine Guy Rating Scale. While this is outstanding in itself they very seldom reach beyond that although there are a couple that have provided they had near matching of the jammy level as compared to other notes in the wine. I grew up with religious ceremony with wines such as Manischewitz and Mogan David were the norm and I don't need so called Cabernet Sauvignons that attempt to lower themselves to that status. If I want a sweet wine there is always the good old Bartles & James to reach for and when I am in the mood I do indeed reach for them. I don't even like a Riesling that is over the top with sweetness. Why or how do varietals that should not be sweet end up sweet? Lets take a look.

     One of the aspects of a sweet wine that I want to briefly discuss is something is called Residual Sugar. What is Residual Sugar? Residual Sugar typically refers to the sugar remaining after fermentation stops, or is stopped. It can also result from the addition of unfermented must. Residual Sugar is measured in grams per Liter (g/l) of wine. Any wine that is 45 g/l is considered sweet.  Sugar is need in wine in order to feed the Yeast needed for wine. Residual Sugar sometimes happens simply because common table sugar is added in inexpensive wines. The sweetness taste in a wine can also be from the level of acidity or Alcohol levels in the wine. Sometimes what our Palette detects as sweetness is because of what our other sense (that of smell) detects. There are all kinds of formulas that can show you how this sugar to wine ration is figured out but I won't bore you with all that stuff. There are varietals of wine that I DO expect to be on the sweeter side such as a Port, Moscato or an Asti Spumante and when you purposely go out and buy those wines you are expecting a much higher level of sweetness than should you buy a Brut or a Cabernet Sauvignon. To me here lyes the issue that I have with a sweet wine. When I do go buy a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot I do not expect to taste a sugary wine that tastes like sugar mixed with fruit juice. I expect to taste what the varietal is supposed to be famous for, what makes it (in this case) a Cabernet Sauvignon, the king of Red wine. I expect to taste Black currant, Tobacco, Licorice, Oak, Black cherry. It would be nice if there were also some Tannins but if the wine is meant to be drank in a relativity near future (same 2-3 years) I can forgive the lack of them being present. BUT when I taste a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot and I taste a heavy, sweet fruity sugar that dominates or over powers the other notes of this great varietal.... I get upset. To me and I think to others, there are certain varietals of wine that are simply not meant to be sweet and others that are meant to be sweet....period.

   So there you have it folks, let's go  ahead and finish this up. I must admit something to you guys at this point. Believe it or not this article didn't start off as my Thesis on sweet, sugary tasting wines. This article actually started off as a review of the 2013 Dominican Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon and kind of morphed into what you just read. A little over half way thru writing this I realized that I had hardly mentioned the actual wine I was supposed to be writing about so I erased the little that I had on it and kept the rest of the article and simply carried on with with what I was ranting about. I guess you could say that I was led or inspired by the wine gods to write this piece. When all was said and done I was happy that I deviated from the original topic. 
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                  The Desert Wine Guy

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