TN: Ryme Cellars 2017 Cabernet Franc Alegria Vineyard

We had this with homemade pizza last night and it did not disappoint. The Ryme Cab. Franc is always a fresh, light body easy drinking wine that always matches well with food.
The 2017 version was fermented in two separate lots. One was a whole cluster fermentation in a tank and pressed gently by foot once a day to keep the top fresh and release some juice. This results in a partial carbonic fermentation. The other lot was whole cluster into clay amphora. Both fermentations were pressed separately to neutral oak barrels and blended prior to bottling.

The wine has aromas of cherry, wild strawberry and some floral-herbal notes. Flavors follow the nose with black cherry, raspberry, cranberry, pine needle and spice. Light to medium body the wine has lots of “energy” from the nice acidity and some tannins on the finish. Easy to keep sipping this, actually its downright crushable :slight_smile:.
Thinking about the aroma, flavor and structure of this wine, for me it encompasses the best of domestic Grenache, Pinot Noir and Cab Franc. Tasted blind not sure which I would have guessed. 12.5% ABV we had with some awesome homemade pizza.


If you are interested in the Pizza and scroll down.
https://wineimport.discoursehosting.net/t/for-bob-wood/1389/1

Thanks for the note, Tom. Alegría is a terrific vineyard for Cab Franc - I’ve had several other very good ones from there in addition to the Ryme bottling, which I’ve liked a lot the times I’ve tried it. Bailiwick (sadly no longer in business) used to make a nice Cab Franc from Alegría and Tessier makes another that’s worth looking for. And of course Acorn (Alegría is their estate vineyard) makes one too. I’ve gotten intriguing jalapeño aromas from some Alegría Vineyard Cab Francs, from different producers - seems to be characteristic of the variety in this vineyard.

Thanks for the note! I really enjoy this style of Franc - your note sounds very close to the Lo-Fi Cab Franc I had recently.

Hi Ken, thanks for the tip on the Tessier. I had heard of the brand but had not tried the wines. Reading the Cab Franc note on the Tessier site, I agree it sounds like a wine we would enjoy. Will be on the lookout for it.

The 17 Ryme Cab Franc had what I described as Herbal-Pine like, likely that jalapeno you described. It had a bit more upfront cherry fruit than previous vintages which alters the flavor profile a bit. Very crushable wine

Eric, I will also be looking for the LoFi Cab Franc [cheers.gif]

Tom

Thanks for the tasting note, Tom!! [berserker.gif]


If you enjoyed the RhymeAlegria Vineyard” Cabernet Franc, you would probably like Phillip Dubé’s Whipsmart Wine CompanyOne Fine Morning” RRV Dolcetto (extended carbonic maceration).

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Also, here’s the “Mourvèdre Appreciation” Q&A with Kristie Tacey of Tessier Winery.

I’m sure you will enjoy the Lo-Fi, Tom. Check out the Broc Cellars Cab Franc too if you haven’t tried it already.

Did a fun blind tasting of California Cab Francs - with a couple of ringers from the Loire Valley - in summer 2017. Didn’t have Ryme in that line-up but some good wines. My main take-away - even if you’re aiming for a Loire-inspired CF in California, the wine will be easily identifiable as California. At least that was true for this tasting - the two ringers stood out very clearly from all the others.

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Ken, that is a heck of a tasting. Always interesting with a couple of ringers thrown in. Have had a couple glasses the Broc Cellars, I think it was at The Spinster Sisters in Santa Rosa. The Lo-Fi is on my radar.

Just curious, did you and the group have a couple of favorites from the Cab Franc tasting.

Tom

PS: Unrelated, if anyone out there is driving in Sonoma County, be careful. Roads are flooded EVERYWHERE!

Some of us took notes during that tasting - mine were pretty minimal but here are my observations (the numbers refer to the bag numbers during the blind tasting - the order was entirely random).

Favorites during the tasting included the Breton Bourgueil (#1), “Jour de Soif” Bourgueil (#3), “Bebamé” (#4), Lo-Fi (#7), and Broc (#9). The Breton Bourgueil was my overall favorite. I picked up a touch of brett in both the Breton Bourgueil (which didn’t really bother me) and bit more in the Krater (which bothered me more). For the California wines, the Lo-Fi and Bailiwick seemed to be outliers – the Lo-Fi for its very carbonic character and the Bailiwick for its surprisingly oaky character. FWIW, I’ve had the 2010 Bailiwick Cab Franc before and enjoyed that one much more than the 2013. The Tessier also seemed to have more oak than I would have expected (not as much as the Bailiwick) or maybe just something that seemed like oak – nice herbal notes though. The “Bebamé” was quite fruit-forward, with fresh raspberry and a bit floral. The Broc was quite light and pleasant, with some carbonic character. The Prima Materia was richer in texture but was not showing a lot – probably needed more air. The Methode Sauvage was perplexing at first – earthy and funky – but I felt it might just need more air so I kept some in a glass for about an hour and it really improved. If we’d given all the wines more air before tasting, this might well have been one of my favorites.

I think a number of these wines could have used more time / air than we gave them. Kristy Tacey of Tessier was at the tasting and was perplexed by the apparent oak in her wine, as it was aged in older barrels - as noted, it could well have been something other than oak showing there and very possibly whatever that was would have dissipated with more air or more bottle age.

And I forgot that we did have a couple or Ryme wines to start out that tasting - the “Hers” and “His” Vermentinos.

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Thanks Ken, nice notes on a very cool tasting!

Tom