If Cab Franc Did Not Exist, We Would Have to Invent It.

We need to know that there are wines that exist that flaunt Beauty, that brush critical determinism away like so many summer bugs. We need to know that there are wines that rise above residual sweetness and the appeal to the cynical lowest common denominator inherent in that undrinkable presentation. We need wines that press out envelopes, that promote uncertainty; wines that ask questions and don’t just pat heads.

“If Cab Franc did not exist, we would have to invent it.” Apologies to Voltaire and his concept of moral authority. We’re talking flat-out transcendence here.

We’ve always had a basic need for apotheosis, for something, someone, some grape variety in this case, to show us how far beyond the ordinary we are capable of moving. We need to be inspired…we need to know that our quotidian existence can be gotten out of.

We need to know that there are wines that exist that flaunt Beauty, that brush critical determinism away like so many summer bugs. We need to know that there are wines that rise above residual sweetness and the appeal to the cynical lowest common denominator inherent in that undrinkable presentation. We need wines that press out envelopes, that promote uncertainty; wines that ask questions and don’t just pat heads.

There are some wines that are connected to the green center of all growing things. That seem connected to the first Garden. This was a garden that bloomed equally of life and death; the thriving things, therefore, had an active muscularity to them…like Cab Franc — the lithe body of a gymnast, not the swell of the weightlifter.