The Panel which evaluated wines June 16, 2008 consisted of Jim Tiedeman, Certified Specialist of Wine, Society of Wine Educators; Michael Walsh, Wine Educator at various venues including The Innkeepers Kitchen in Dilworthtown; Kevin Donahue, holder of diplomas from the Wine & Spirit Educational Trust (London), Philippe McCartney, wine instructor at The Restaurant School, Philadelphia; Caressa Canfield, sales Specialist with Diageo; Amy Cava, owner and president of Vino Cava LLC a specialty wine importing company and Roger Morris, wine writer for the Wilmington News Journal.

An abbreviated version of the article about the August 2007 seminar the PQA Group sponsored which appears in the January/February 2008 Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine appears below.

Saving Eastern Cabernet Franc
Better Clones and Rootstocks
Key to Improvements, Say Researchers
Story by David Falchek

Last summer, Penn State Enology Extension Agent Stephen Menke and vinifera growers of the Pennsylvania Quality Assurance Group hosted a seminar titled "Succeeding with Cabernet Franc." Although cabernet franc is widely planted in Pennsylvania, Mr. Menke found the quality variable, so variable that he and others wondered if the state should be relying on it at all. As he and others explored the issue and compared successful cabernet francs with less successful, they found a litany of wrongs. Cabernet franc, if done right, is well worth doing in Pennsylvania and other areas in the East. Attended by growers and winemakers throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic, they explored why eastern cabernet francs weren't as good as they could be and what they could do to realize cabernet franc's promise.
 
As it turns out, most of the problems came with that first generation of vines. After earning kudos from college viticulture programs, growers ordered vines that were between the worst possible clone and rootstock combination. The session showed a concerted effort to do better.
 
Very winter hardy and a slightly early ripener, cabernet franc has a good track record in cool, moist, disease-prone climates, showing well in Cornell University test vineyards. Growers reported the vines survived cold winters and were productive. In the late 1980s, Bordeaux winemakers touring the Finger lakes were skeptical of cabernet sauvignon and merlot they encountered. Don't view cabernet franc as a supporting player, they advised. Where it is well adapted, cab franc will surpass other Bordeaux varieties, they said.
 
WHAT WENT WRONG IN THE BEGINNING
 
The buzz had begun. This initial wave of interest predated the awareness of other critical issues, such as the grape variety's clone and the rootstock grafted to it. Most growers, as Pennsylvania pioneer Dick Naylor confessed, had some cab franc tacked onto a nursery order. Many aren't sure what clone or rootstock they have.
 
Many pioneers had the worst of all worlds: California-adapted clone CA4 grafted on vigorous rootstocks such as 5BB and S04. In the East's fertile soils, the combination exacerbated overcropping, creating monster canopies that push outrageous yields that contribute to unripeness and off•putting herbaceousness. Growers didn't help. Most viewed cabernet franc as prominent Pennsylvania grower John Weygandt of Stargazers' Vineyards does: "an iron-clad grape." Undercut from the beginning, cabernet franc was relegated to the worst parts of the vineyard as choicest sites went to its more highly esteemed Bordeaux siblings, merlot and cabernet sauvignon.
 
"I always said we would never achieve greatness with cabernet franc," said Virginia winemaking consultant Tom Payette. "Now I realize that we've stuck our kid in the mud. It's no wonder he can't run." The seminar, and the wines, showed that improvement is under way.
 
EXPERIENCE FROM THE LOIRE VALLEY
 
Eastern vinifera pioneers may have been modeling the wrong region. Bordeaux's northern latitude is often cited as a defense for planting its varieties in the East. Bordeaux, which means "Bordering Water," enjoys a maritime climate with warm equatorial currents coming into the Gironde estuary. Most eastern growers experience cool, continental climates.
 
The loire Valley is among Europe's northernmost grape growing regions, confronted by threats of early frost and irregular ripening. Loire's low-clay soils are similar to those in some parts of Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah Valley, and New York, although cabernet franc metabolizes better in clay soils than cabernet sauvignon or merlot
 
"If we want to succeed with cabernet franc as a varietal wine, we need to look at places that are successful,~ Mr. Weygandt said, citing middle Loire Valley regions such as Chinon, Samur, Anjou and Bourgueil, where cabernet franc is the dominant red.
 
The group invited Jean Hubert Lebreton, a fifth generation winemaker whose family owns Domaine Des Rochelles in Anjou cultivating 150 acres. He recognized the similarities between the Eastern wine industry and the Loire Valley of the 1970's, viewed as a maker of bulk wines when Lebreton's grandfather planted cabernet franc. "In France, they don't say 'Anjou,' they say 'Bordeaux' or 'Burgundy,' " he said. "But we have no tradition so we go faster in finding solutions. It is like that with you, competing with California."
 
Many of the sites where Lebreton's family first planted cabernet franc were not ideal. His family recently hired a geologist to take soil core samples, dig row trenches, and examine root penetration and hydrology_ "We've done mistakes not matching varieties with soils," he said. In addition to green harvesting and aggressive canopy management, Rochelles sprays the plant hormone ethephone. The growth regulating spray, applied when secondary clusters are flowering eliminates green berries in otherwise ripe clusters, Lebreton said.
 
For calcareous soils, they grafted to the chlorosis-resistant rootstock 41B. Iron soils were reserved for dry whites. Friable green schist went to cabernet franc. Iron red soils with decomposing slate went with cabernet sauvignon. Rochelles uses a vibrating sorting table and vinifies and ages each parcel separately, using delestage.
 
Lebreton brought two impressive wines. Anjou Rouge L'Ardoise, 2006, was fresh with bright fruit, licorice, smoke and fine grained tannins. His Anjou Village Brissac, 2005, was a warm vintage that showed caramel, ripe fruit, and raspberry. Neither use oak. "My father and I seek the spicy flavor of the fruit. We have no history about oak aging," he said.
 
The Loire's success with cabernet franc has gone largely unrecognized by the market. Few wineries in the East are deterred from creating "Bordeaux-style" wines. As one New England winemaker lamented, the owner enjoys talking about his "Bordeaux style wine." "Loire style" doesn't have that ring.
 
CLONE AND ROOTSTOCK SOLUTIONS
 
Virginia•based viticulturist Lucie Morton talked about the right clones and rootstocks. In addition to creating monster canopies, clone CA2 is susceptible to leaf roll virus, which is another contributor to delayed ripening. Three clones considered superior included 214, noted for raspberries and violet aromatics; 327 distinguished by low vigor and wines of structure; and 623, which yields a good wine and could be color supplement.
 
Rootstocks 101-14 or Riparia Gloire would match fertile sites, since they inhibit vigor. The 101-14 is also nematode tolerant. Low-vigor sites would do well with 1103 Paulsen. Sandy, gravely, dryish and shallow soils could use 3309. She told the group to avoid S04 or 5BB unless the vineyard sits on solid rock with no irrigation. An advocate of diversity, she recommends multiple clone and rootstock combinations. She suggested no-spur, two-cane pruning and one-meter spacing and training to allow leafing on the east side of north-south situated rows.
 
Front-loading effort and thought before establishment, she said, pay off with less time, work hours, and equipment fighting monster canopies that can result from poor clone and rootstock selections. For those who want to make a Bordeaux blend, Morton recommended 40 percent each cabernet franc and merlot, 10 percent cabernet sauvignon, and five percent each of malbec and petit verdot. "Everyone wants to know how to hide the green flavor; oak will hide it but also hide the [fruit] flavor of cabernet franc," she cautioned.
 
UNDERSTANDING PYRAZINES AND CABERNET FRANC
 
Something else could cover the greenness: fruit character, noted Gavin Sacks, Ph.D., assistant professor of enology at Cornell University. He's studying the compound pyrazine thai causes herbaceousness. Sensory panels found relatively low levels of pyrazines in cabernet franc objectionable while finding wines with more pyrazines, such as Bordeaux and sauvignon blancs, acceptable. The difference was the fruit. Less fruit character increases the perception of greenness.
 
He also found that pyrazines form a vegetative tag team with grass-like hexanol, a compound found mostly in grape stems. Their synergy can push a wine's greenness to objectionable levels, Dr. Sacks found. Destemming, gentle handling, and prompt settling and racking can keep hexanol in check.
 
In the cellar, there's no known way to cut pyrazines. In the vineyard, Mr. Sacks recommends pre-veraison leaf removal and canopy management that minimizes leaf-on-leaf shading. Ample sunlight won't burn off pyrazines, he said, only physiological rip. ening reduces them.
 
A tasting of eastern cabernet francs showed that many were making the most with what chance and terroir dealt them, curtailing greenness and expressing fruit. To atone for past sins, quality Eastern producers are pruning and trimming the hydra-like canopies and dropping excess grape dusters several times a year to promote full ripening. Hand sorting is more common than in the past.
 
The resulting grapes and wines are riper and less herbaceous. Word is spreading about the right cabernet franc clones-originating, not surprisingly from the Loire. The cab franc faithful in the East are learning from the mistakes of the past before their variety becomes a noble experiment.
 
Given the success of the cabernet franc session, Penn State and the growers' group will likely host another in-depth session focused on a specific variety. For example, there's been an interest in gruener veltliner.