The Other Cabernet with Inconnu’s Laura Brennan Bissell: Seduced by the Loire Valley’s Greatest Red Grape.
Sadly, Cabernet Franc is better known as a blending agent than a stand-alone entity despite the fact that it actually spawned Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Cab Franc is one of France’s oldest varieties with its ancestors and origins long since lost to history, but its spiritual home is squarely situated in the Loire Valley. From Decanter:
Laura Brennan Bissell makes joyful, exuberant Cab Franc in California inspired by the Loire’s easygoing “wines of pleasure.”
As for those of you provisioning from afar, I encourage you to seek out one of the Loire’s traditional archetypes, be it from Chinon, Bourgueil, or Saumur-Champigny.
This week’s poem was: Time Without End by Arthur Rimbaud
From Bill’s recap email:
Thank you again to everyone who joined us yesterday for our 44th Sunday of instruction. Special thanks to Laura Brennan Bissell of Inconnu Wines for tuning in all the way from Kauai to share her story and spread the gospel of Cab Franc. We gather each weekend in the name of wine but only as a starting point. I am proud that this virtual lecture hall has become the kind of supportive virtual space where our guests feel comfortable addressing more significant, personal topics. Laura makes some of the most wildly refreshing, matter-of-factly delicious wines in California today. But she’s all the more remarkable for her openness and honesty about the adversity she faced on her road to professional triumph and for her restless pursuit of better ways to serve the world through her winemaking. In her own words:
“ Just like my life, I wish for my wines to be distilled into a poetic form, and not to have their entrails spread apart on a surgical table. There is pain and suffering, there is joy, chaos, recklessness at times, but more than anything, a quiet optimism that every day of our time here is yet another chance to experience something beautiful.”
The Other Cabernet is something of a romantic grape, not unlike Pinot Noir but without the same gloss of Burgundian supremacy. It hails from château country but is more firmly rooted in the earth, all barnyard, herb garden, flower bed, and petrichor. Cab Franc can be equally generous and sauve, but at its best, it remains a poignant reminder in the glass of the countryside that spawned it.
Cabernet Franc is also fast becoming the East Coast’s most significant red varietal. Early Mountain’s Winemaker Ben Jordan:
“I like Cab Franc, because it can thrive throughout the state, but does very different things, depending on the site and the region. It’s definitely a terroir grape for the state I like the aromatics it brings in Virginia, herbal/other than fruit, while still being generous, lower tannin and with plenty of fruit. It also can stand up pretty well to a wetter season and still produce something compelling. I also like that it is so different from Cab Franc grown in Bordeaux, California or the Loire, but somehow has similarities with each. It is also the variety that has benefited the most from better site selection and growing practices of the past decade or so. As we get better at farming, the quality of Cab Franc shows that progression. I also think it does really well on good sites in the valley, possibly producing some of the most exciting examples of the grape at those higher elevations, and as someone who is committed to the Shenandoah Valley, I’m excited to see more people plant it there.”
Don’t miss Laura’s star turn on the Women in Wine Podcast.
– Vinguard interviews Laura and Martha Stoumen to “chat about their journeys and thoughts on natural wine in California.”
– Von Diaz tells her story of befriending Laura and forging unlikely careers in food and wine.
– Esther Mobley asks if ethical wine can also be inexpensive.
– The illustrious Jon Bonné gives you a Loire Valley Cab Franc crib sheet and takes a look at the Other Cabernet on the West Coast.
– The Wine Enthusiast offers its own guide to the three Loire Valley appellations we covered.
– Wine Vines Analytics considers how growers in marginal climates like the Finger Lakes can coax more ripeness out of their Cabernet Franc.