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Leah Jørgensen Cellars, Cabernet Franc

Oregon, United States 2018 (750mL)
$30.00
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Leah Jørgensen Cellars, Cabernet Franc

Okay, everyone, it’s time to direct your attention to Southern Oregon. We’re not abandoning the Willamette Valley (not by a long shot), but there is a lot of very exciting wine coming out of the Umpqua and Rogue Valleys, not far from the California border. It’s a little warmer down here, the soils are different, and visionary winemaker Leah Jørgensen homed in on Cabernet Franc when she established her eponymous label in 2011—despite having been lured west in the first place by the Pinot Noirs of the Willamette Valley.
She studied viticulture and enology in Salem, worked for top producers such as Erath, Adelsheim, and Shea, and while her current winery is in Newberg, not far from Ponzi, her signature wine is this Southern Oregon Cabernet Franc. Today’s silky and beautifully balanced 2018 is crafted in the same spirit as the best Oregon Pinot Noirs: It has an Old World sensibility, but it isn’t trying to be a carbon copy of its Old World inspirations (in this case, Chinon, etc. from the Loire). This is Southern Oregon’s interpretation, with its own compelling message, and everyone at SommSelect is convinced: This is a new must-have at the fresh, fragrant, elegant end of the red wine spectrum.
After learning more about Leah’s life in wine, I was reminded of our friend Erin Nuccio, whose Evesham Wood/Haden Fig wines have become SommSelect staples. Like Nuccio, Jørgensen is a transplant from Washington, DC; she worked in wine distribution there, and apprenticed at wineries in Virginia, but a trip to “Oregon Pinot Camp”—an annual, invitation-only pilgrimage of sommeliers, retailers, and other wine pros to the Willamette Valley—inspired her to head west and jump headlong into Oregon viticulture. 

Just over 300 cases of today’s 2018 were produced, using 100% Cabernet Franc sourced from two vineyards: Crater View Ranch and the Sundown Vineyard. Both these sites, which share similarly silty, clay/loam soils and elevations of about 1,600 feet, are in the Rogue Valley, but the wine nevertheless carries the broader “Southern Oregon” AVA designation on the label. Jørgensen described the harvest in ’18 as “outstanding,” thanks to some refreshing, well-timed rain near the end of September. She de-stemmed all the fruit but subjected it to a light crushing, so that some whole berries remained intact, and aged the finished wine in a combination of mostly neutral French oak and stainless steel tanks.

For a young, fresh red, this is also a beautifully integrated and complex red—marked not just by concentrated dark fruit but a smooth, silken texture. There’s only the slightest (very pleasant) hint of the “green” pyrazine notes that characterize Cabernet Franc; it’s much more about fruit and warm spice, including Morello cherry, blackberry, pomegranate, cranberry, violets, black pepper, anise, and ground coffee. It is medium-bodied, with soft tannins and a tangy, mouth-watering freshness that will sustain it for the next several years. Decant it 15 minutes before serving at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems and take a pairing suggestion from Leah Jørgensen herself: dry-rubbed BBQ ribs. If you weren’t already a Southern Oregon devotee, you will be now!
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Country
United States
Region
Oregon
Sub-Region
United StatesSouthern Oregon
Soil
Silty Clay/Loam
Farming
Certified Sustainable (L.I.V.E.)
Blend
Cabernet Franc 100%
Alcohol
14.0
OAK
Mostly Used French
TEMP.
60-65
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now-2024
Decanting
15 Minutes
Pairing
Dry-Rubbed BBQ Ribs

United States

Washington

Columbia Valley

Like many Washington wines, the “Columbia Valley” indication only tells part of the story: Columbia Valley covers a huge swath of Central
Washington, within which are a wide array of smaller AVAs (appellations).

Oregon

Willamette Valley

Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become an elite winegrowing zone in record time. Pioneering vintner David Lett, of The Eyrie Vineyard, planted the first Pinot Noir in the region in 1965, soon to be followed by a cadre of forward-thinking growers who (correctly) saw their wines as America’s answer to French
Burgundies. Today, the Willamette
Valley is indeed compared favorably to Burgundy, Pinot Noir’s spiritual home. And while Pinot Noir accounts for 64% of Oregon’s vineyard plantings, there are cool-climate whites that must not be missed.

California

Santa Barbara

Among the unique features of Santa Barbara County appellations like Ballard Canyon (a sub-zone of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA), is that it has a cool, Pacific-influenced climate juxtaposed with the intense luminosity of a southerly
latitude (the 34th parallel). Ballard Canyon has a more north-south orientation compared to most Santa Barbara AVAs, with soils of sandy
clay/loam and limestone.

California

Paso Robles

Situated at an elevation of 1,600 feet, it is rooted in soils of sandy loam and falls within the Highlands District of the Paso Robles AVA.

New York

North Fork

Wine growers and producers on Long Island’s North Fork have traditionally compared their terroir to that of Bordeaux and have focused on French varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

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