Cabernet Franc

Cabernet franc is the older grape and the parent of cabernet sauvignon, which it crossed with sauvignon blanc to produce. It is also a parent of merlot and of carmenère, which makes it one of the most genetically important varieties in Bordeaux. It probably comes from the Basque country, in the western Pyrenees, and reached the Loire in the seventeenth century.

It ripens earlier than cabernet sauvignon and buds earlier, which suits cooler and damper sites. The wine is lighter in colour and tannin, higher in aromatic lift, and marked by raspberry, violet, graphite and a leafy, bell-pepper note from the same pyrazines that mark its offspring. Where cabernet sauvignon is dense, cabernet franc is perfumed and pointed.

Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny in the Loire are the classic varietal expressions, grown on limestone and gravel, and they age far better than their price suggests. In Bordeaux it is a minority partner on the Left Bank and a major one on the Right, where Château Cheval Blanc is famously more than half cabernet franc. It has become the signature red of the Finger Lakes, Ontario, and Villány in Hungary, all cool places where cabernet sauvignon will not ripen.