A cheeky ‘chilled red’. Born out of the heartbreaking 2023 vintage in Hawkes Bay, Franco is the lighter, textural iteration of our Howell Vineyard Bridge Pa Cabernet Franc.

Still wishing to support our growers and the region during this difficult time, yet understanding that our ‘house’ style of Cabernet Franc would not suffice, we decided to create a delicious, prettier, chilled version (12%) - ‘Franco’. Garnet in colour. Brimming with notes of earthy wild strawberries. The palate is highly textural, and soft, finishing with bucket loads of flavour and warmth. Serve chilled.

Howell Vineyard, Bridge Pa Hawkes Bay. Red metal soils, densly planted with 27 year old vines at 2315 vines /ha.

A very challenging season. A moderate spring and average temperatures for ripening. Several significant rain events occured toward the end of summer, and the wet conditions continued into Autumn.

The fruit was machine harvested and delivered to the winery. It was destemmed into a small open top fermenter. Once fermentation began, naturally, it was innoculated and plunged twice daily. After fermentation finished it remained on skins for a further week prior to being gently pressed off. It remained in both stainless steel and neutral oak for 8 months and was filtered prior to bottling. Bottled unfined.

A gorgeous example of German Cab Franc made by master of Wine Sam Harrop and Pfalz based winemaker Gerd Stepp. Red and dark fruits are wrapped in savoury and spice complexity, placing the wine somewhere between Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

TASTING NOTE 

Vibrant ruby red colour. with purple hues. Lifted aroma of redcurrants, cranberry, violet florals, leather and spice, hints of olive and chocolate flecks. It is young and a little brooding, slightly restrained, yet delicate.  A juicy and textural front palate is followed by plum, mouthcoating gravelly tannin that drives the length of the wine and mulberries dominating the mid palate. The wine opens up beautifully with time in the glass. A hint of savouriness and graphite bring yet more complexity. Made in a playful but serious style that suits a wide range of dishes or perfect on Its own. 

VINEYARD 

Cabernet Franc for this wine was sourced from 1988 plantings in the Isolation Ridge vineyard at Frankland Estate. The vineyard sits on an undulating northern and eastern facing slope on ancient duplex soils of ironstone gravel and loam over a clay sub-soil. It is certified organic farmed since 2009 and this is reflected in the depth and concentration of fruit flavours. The vines are trained on a Vertical Shoot Position (VSP) trellis system to enhance sunlight penetration of the canopy and optimize ripening conditions.  Cabernet Franc plays a huge role in our vineyard being the main component of our Olmos Reward, we find it suits our vineyard and region the best out of the Bordeaux varieties.

VINIFICATION 

Fruit was harvested in ideal conditions and fermented in shallow stainless steel open fermenters. The fruit is hand plunged to gently extract the tannin, keep the ferment as even as possible and maintain fruit purity. The wine is pressed off and aged on lees in 500L French oak puncheons and 1500L foudre for 10 months before bottling

All Guiberteau’s whites are pressed as bunches and ferment with indigenous yeasts. Historically, this wine has been vinified entirely in tank, although more recent vintages have been partly aged in tronconique oak and used barrels to broaden the textural range and mitigate reduction. It strikes the palate with laser-guided confit lemon and kaffir lime, with mouth watering acidity cutting through the wine’s sleek texture like a hot knife through butter. Closing with the quivering, chalky length typical of the region’s top whites, it’s a thrilling Saumur blanc; we bought every bottle we could. Lovers of fine Riesling and white Burgundy should jump on this.

WINEMAKING NOTES
This wine was made from grapes grown on the stony and sandy terrace of the vineyard. The grapes were fermented in open top tanks with inoculated yeast.  Gentle hand plunging was used for extraction, and the wine was then held on skins for an extended period of 4 weeks of post ferment maceration. The wine was then pressed and racked to French oak barriques where it was aged for 12 months. The final blend has a 30% new oak component and 30% second fill.

ANALYSIS
pH 3.69
TA 5.6g/l
Alcohol 13.0%

TASTING NOTES
A fragrant medley of crushed red berry fruits fills the nose, accompanied by scented oak spice, sweet vanillan notes and infused with delicate dried wild herbs. Juicy, concentrated, and full of bright raspberry and cherry fruit flavours, the palate is fleshy and textural, but well balanced with vibrant acidity and fruit sweetness, to give a long and expressive finish.

AWARDS
Silver Regional Aotearoa Wine Competition

Made with 95% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec with fruit from Stellenbosch and Paarl grown only on decomposed dolomite granite, which gives a great acidity and freshness to the wine and adds minerality to the finish. Beautifully ripe and oozing with brooding dark fruit flavours of cherry and blackberry.  

WHAT'S THE STORY? The Coterie wines draw upon a convergence of Wildeberg's tiny production pool of identified vineyards. Made with Wildeberg's cornerstone philosophies of minimal intervention winemaking, wild ferment and coarse filtration to capture the essence of the source vineyards and soils. 

PRODUCTION Wildeberg’s rationale is to source the finest vineyards available to us across Franschhoek and the Coastal Region, from which cuvées the eyes are plucked to make Wildeberg and the Terroir Series releases In doing so there remains a small yet definitive expression of all the vineyards we worked with, and its these cuvees that are again selected to go into Coterie by Wildeberg. All fruit is hand harvested in February from selected sites in Franschhoek and Paarl. Both cultivars are fermented whole bunch, with some whole berry fruit, there is no crush, just a daily pump over during the natural fermentation. We want to express place over cultivar so this slow, gentle extraction gives wines truer of origin than winery. The components are racked to French and Austrian oak, new and old, for 20 months before the blend is decided. This blend is then allowed to marry for 6 weeks prior to coarse filtration and bottling on the farm. 

TASTING NOTE In many ways, the 2024 vintage showcases this wine perfectly and demonstrates why these 2 grape varieties partner so harmoniously. Smaller berries produced a very intense and concentrated Malbec portion, brimming with rich, ripe dark-fruit character. The Cabernet Franc provided the perfect foil, with bright cherry fruit and black pepper spice, and the end result is a drinkable blend delivering a powerfil wine with the Wildeberg hallmarks of balance and fine, carefully considered acidity. 

FOOD MATCH Grilled meats, especially lamb and spiced meat dishes. 

68% Cabernet Franc | 32% Malbec ALC: 14%   |   R/S: 1.9 (g/l)   |   TA: 5.9 (g/l)   |   PH: 3.41

Biodynamic. 

100% Cabernet Franc. 

Germain’s calling card is drawn from the domaine’s many parcels in Saumur. These varied sites grow on tuffeau/limestone soils around the communes of Varrains, Chaintres, Dampierre and Saumur. The vines range from 10 to 70 years old (with the average at around 30) and include the domaine’s ‘home’ vineyard, Le Clos, a site ploughed by the family’s Ardennais draft horse. Germain harvests by hand, employs cold soak infusion for some parcels and carries out the wild yeast fermentation and maturation mostly in tank. Aside from a minor 10 ppm SO2 at bottling, the wine sees no additions. Packed with youthful Saumur joie de vivre, this is a pure, elegantly floral red with perfumed dark cherry, anise and graphite notes and a juicy, supple, mouthwatering personality that pairs beautifully with cheese, paté, pork chops and roast chicken. In other words, the perfect bistro wine (that goes with every course)! The colour of the label this year is a kind of bluish slate.

Commercial description

Our Merlot Cabernet Franc comes from our Cornerstone vineyard growing in Hawke's Bays' famed Gimblett Gravels appellation. An area renowned for producing excellent hot climate reds. We think Cornerstone is the jewel in the appellation's crown but there again we are rather biased!

In our Iris blend, the Merlot sets up the palate with ripeness and structure while the Cabernet Franc brings its sweet dried basil notes to create our deliciously good medium-bodied red

Cabernet Franc is one of the hottest red grapes on Earth right now. Structured, ripe, dark fruit flavours with layers of ripe plum, blackberries and spice make this wine a beautiful drink now as well as for ageing. It comes from a plateau across the border of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy where the soils are rich in iron and limestone and provide superb ripening conditions to grapes grown there, with the added benefit of the ocean influence. 

Fermentation in French and American oak is followed by ageing for a year in larger Slavonian and French oak. This stunning wine drinks well now and has a long life ahead, provided it is cellared well.  

Juicy red with complex savoury notes following in the wake of lush berry flavours, made 100% from Cabernet Franc from Domaine Moly Saumur. This is a new producer for us in store at Regional and we're thrilled to bring this wine to you from French winemaker Etienne Moly, a respected producer in the Loire Valley, France. 

The Saumur Champigny Terres Chaudes Rouge is a red wine from the controlled designation of origin of the Loire Valley. It is a blend of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown on a clay-limestone soil.

Tasting
The Saumur Champigny Terres Chaudes Rouge has aromas of red fruits and spices, with a hint of licorice. It is structured with ample and fleshy tannins. This wine goes perfectly with red meats, saucy dishes, and aged cheeses.

Terroir and Winemaking
Domaine des Roches Neuves practices organic farming to cultivate its vines, which is beneficial for the environment and biodiversity. The grapes are harvested by hand before being rigorously sorted. The winemaking process takes place traditionally with prolonged maceration and aging in tanks and oak barrels for several months. This method produces a powerful and elegant wine that reflects the richness of its terroir.