Fogolar Wines, 2016 Picone Vineyard Cabernet Franc, Niagara, ON, Canada
Fogolar Wines was launched by Marc Pistor in 2013. Marc has been making wine in Niagara since 2005, and before setting off on his own with Fogolar, he was assistant winemaker at Inniskillin and head winemaker at Arterra Wines, the parent company of Inniskillin.
Paying homage to his Friulian roots, from the local Furlan dialect, the word 'fogolar' translates to hearth or gathering place to share food among family and friends. Marc's focus at Fogolar is Riesling and Cabernet Franc, both for their suitability for producing consistently excellent wines in the Niagara region and also for their ability to express a sense of place in the glass. Marc works with select growers and vineyard sites for both of these varieties, and today we're looking at his Picone Vineyard Cabernet Franc.
If Ontario ever adopted a "cru system" in an effort to recognize top vineyard and variety combinations, there are a handful of vineyards for Cabernet Franc that I think merit consideration for their track record of excellence and terroir expressiveness for the variety, and one of them is the Picone Vineyard.
Located west of the village of Vineland, in the Vinemount Ridge VQA sub-appellation, here at the Picone Vineyard there is a 1.37-acre block of Cabernet Franc vines were planted back in the early 1980s - making these some of the oldest Cabernet Franc vines in Ontario. This is a vineyard site for Cabernet Franc I've been paying attention to since the beginning of my career, when the fruit was being vinified by Ravine Vineyard. And Marc has been working with the fruit for Fogolar since 2014.
The Vinemount Ridge VQA sub-appellation is one of three appellations, along with Creek Shores and the Lincoln Lakeshore, that don't fall under either of the Niagara-on-the-Lake or Niagara Escarpment regional appellations. This is quite a large sub-appellation, stretching about 40km from east to west, and covering around 120 sq km, so there is quite a lot of variability from site to site. The region sits atop the Niagara Escarpment, and is defined by two geological features, the Vinemount Moraine in the west and north, and the Fonthill Kame in the east.
In terms of viticulture, even though this is quite a large area, there are some board observations we can make about the growing environment here. Because of the region's position set back from Lake Ontario, the vineyards here will receive less of a moderating influence from the lake. So the growing season will be shorter, but warmer over all, and winters will be colder. So this sub-appellation has the fewest growing degree days of all the VQA sub-appellations in the the Niagara Peninsula. Because of its position away from the lake and the prevailing winds from the southwest, the region experiences a wide diurnal range in temperatures, so cool nights to offset the warm days, slowing down ripening and preserving acidities. The soils across the Vinemount Ridge appellation vary considerably, but there tends to be a lot more clay in the topsoils here versus other parts of the Niagara Peninsula.
So, the Picone Vineyard is located about 6km south of Lake Ontario, at the very northern edge of the Vinemount Ridge appellation, on what would be considered part of the Vinemount Moraine. The block of Cabernet Franc as a slight northern exposure, at an elevation of about 187m above sea level. Back in the fall of 2020, I visited the vineyard with Marc and viticulturalist Phil Clarke to see first hand what this vineyard is all about. Phil explained that the site has very good ventilation and good sun exposure because of its positioning and how open and exposed this block it. In terms of soils, the vineyard's limestone subsoil is topped by what Phil calls “pesky blue clay,” referring to the thickness and density of the clay. Because of this clay, the site is naturally low yielding, and typically doesn’t require any green harvesting. Phil and his team will do shoot thinning at the beginning of the season, with leaf-pulling as needed to balance the yield and canopy, and the block usually yields around 3 to 3.5 tons/acre. In general, this is a cool, slow-ripening site with a slightly longer growing season that average, allowing Cabernet Franc to achieve good phenolic maturity thanks to this slow, gradual ripening.
In terms of winemaking, the fruit is all hand-harvested. The majority of the fruit is destemmed, and Marc will generally do a small portion, about 15% whole cluster depending on the vintage. The fermentation is in open-top 1 ton fermenters, and he uses a combination of indigenous and cultured yeasts, and the total time on skins is about 28 days. After pressing, the free run wine and press wine are combined and aged in barrel for 16 to 18 months. Marc typically gets about 8 to 10 barrels of wine from this block, and the élevage is in a combination of French and American oak, about 20-30% new. When Marc is ready to bottle, he will typically select the best 3 or 4 barrels, which typically is all coming from French oak barrels, and these will make up the single vineyard bottling.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Fogolar Wines
Region: Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada
Appellation: VQA Vinemount Ridge
Vineyard: Picone Vineyard
Soils: Deep, heavier clay
Alcohol: 13.6%
