The UnCorker

Weird Wine of the Week: Pulenta Estate Cabernet Franc Tardio 2004

Is this Weird Wine? Hmm…. where to start.  First of all, botrytis cinerea, the fungus which in it’s benign form is called the “noble rot” and is responsible for some of the world’s finest sweet wines - is not supposed to make good red wines.  Botrytis feeds on the skins, where red wines get their tannins and flavor, robbing red grapes of their pigment and producing off-odors in the wine during maceration. Sweet cabernet franc is therefore more common in ice-wine country, such as Southern Ontario - where long growing seasons are combined with early freezing conditions in certain years and complex sweet wines can be made without the help of the fungus.  Secondly, at 980 metres above sea level near the city of Mendoza lies the Pulenta Estate, which is fine Argentinian wine country - dry as hell, with thin air, and perfect for ripening red grapes.   However, its not humid enough for botrytis. The fungus just doesn’t show up, preferring damp Burgundy ocean moisture or finicky Bordeaux microclimates to this land of open ranges and pantalooned gauchos.

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2006 Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil La Martinière

The 2006 Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil from La Martniere is a hard wine to figure- Cabernet Franc can be many things; dark and peppery, rich and plush, or in this case bright red, spicy, and almost aggressivly acidic, this one needs a chill and some cured meats, or perhaps some cold chicken. Rarely does stainless steel vinification seem so evident; we would have guessed carbonic maceration as well. On the nose this is all bright juicy cherries, extremly fresh on the palate, again, so bright and fresh that without some kind of fattiness, it just doesn’t work.