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 |
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
www.desertwineguy.blogspot.com/
www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy?fref=nf
https://twitter.com/DesertWineGuyLV
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ/videos
No comments:
Post a Comment