Oct. 2, 2013

Cab Franc and Cab Franc foods

This was the topic of our Sept. Foodie Seminar.

All due to our love of Cab Franc: In 2012 we made our first Cab Franc from Alegria Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. We bottled late February and released it in April. People are often thrilled to see a 100% Cab Franc and sales prove this. Our 200 case production is half sold.

We chose this topic for many reasons:
    One - Knowing the foods that pair with our Cab Franc assists in the joy our customers will have    
              with a purchase and recommendation.
    Two - people often seem confused why our Cab Franc is in a Burgundy bottle.
    Three - Many people have come out of the woodwork claiming to be Cab Franc fans
     Four - we did a blind tasting of Cab Franc's after we had signed the contract last year to
                purchase the grapes and wanted to do some research. We enjoyed the tasting so much, we
                wanted to share our findings.

So, what was the outcome, Read more about our evening.....

We started with 4 glasses per person and did two flights. The wines were all wrapped in paper bags & unknown to all participants.
The first flight of four had two French wines and two Californian. The room was not really divided but the favorite was the last wine, Paul Mathew.
The second flight featured a New Zealand, Finger Lakes, Sonoma and a Napa. These wines all had hands up but the favorite two were the Sonoma and the Finger Lakes.

Once we unleashed the line up of wines, everyone was able to retaste the wines & pick what wine to pair with our foods.

The Foods: we discovered that Cab Franc goes really well with tomato based foods. So, we had Backyard Restaurant chef Daniel in Forestville prepare four food items:
      Crostini with tomato jam and lardo
      Ratatouie
      Moussaka
      Paella with chicken and chorizo

Everyone was fairly divided with favorites but there was a consistent result; the Cab Francs were great with the food. The New Zealand showed well with the Ratatouie, Paul Mathew showed with the Lardo crostini. I loved the Mossaka!

cheers to another fun evening of food & wine.