A really great Cabernet Franc from an excellent vintage!

Niagara Cab Francs are big wines that take quite a bit of time to be approachable. These bad boys can singe your pallet with teeth coating tannins and long tastes that make these wines a real hard wine to pair with food (sometimes). In France Cab Franc is used as a blending grape, often with little of it necessary to give a wine a higher degree of age-ability, more complexity etc.

This wine is not one of those. Inniskillin have done a positively fabulous job of taming the tannins and creating one of the most “drink now” Cab Francs from Niagara I have ever had. Quite impressive really. In the glass the wine is inky dark. On the nose are some lovely dark fruits reminiscent of a cab sauv. On the mid pallet there are some subtle cab sauv like flavors, cherries, casis and chocolate. On the finish are some complex notes with tannins well under control. Alcohol and oak are also well in check. The finish was medium in length and very pleasant with no bitterness at all. This is a well made wine. I kept preparing myself for the harshness that never came. It paired extremely well with a sirloin steak.

This is a favourite of mine from Ontario. Grabbed a few to hold onto.