Steven Kent Winery, 2021 Ghielmetti Vineyard Cabernet Franc
For those that have been following this project for some time now, you will have noticed I haven't featured many Cabernet Francs from California. While there are more and more single varietal Cabernet Francs emerging from the state and the variety has been subject of a lot of press in recent years, Cabernet Franc still represents a very small piece of the overall viticultural landscape in the state.
As of 2023, there are 3485 acres or about 1410 hectares of Cabernet Franc planted in California, which represents less than 1% of the wine grape acreage in the state, and is a drop in the bucket compared to the acreage of the #1 planted grape Cabernet Sauvignon, which accounts for over 95,638 acres or 37,000 hectares.
So when I'm looking at examples of the Cabernet Franc from California, commitment matters. And the wines that I've found to really speak to me are from those producers who have gone all in, so to speak, and made Cabernet Franc and stand alone Cabernet Franc an important part of the DNA, rather than all of a sudden making single-varietal Cabernet Franc, or in some cases a varietally-labelled Cabernet Franc that has 25% other varieties, because its in vogue to do so.
Which brings me to today's wine and the story of Steven Mirassou - someone who has gone all in with Cabernet Franc. Steven is the 6th generation in America's oldest winemaking family, who's roots in the wine business date back to the 1854. Steven's winemaking journey began in 1996 when he and his father created Steven Kent Winery in the Livermore Valley, which at the time had, and to a certain extent still does, a strong focus on Cabernet Sauvignon. Having recently moved back to California, Steven discovered Kermit Lynch's retail shop in Berkeley, and many will recall that Kermit Lynch was one of the first in the US to embrace Loire Valley Cabernet Franc and he introduced many iconic domaines to American consumers and professionals. So in the early 2000s, Steven started to discover the joys of Loire Valley Cabernet Franc through the wines of Charles Joguet, Bernard Baudry and others.
By the 2006 vintage, Steven decided to make his first single varietal Cabernet Franc from fruit sourced from the Ghielmetti vineyard. Seeing the quality and distinctiveness of the expression of the variety from Livermore, and the fact that it offered a point of differentiation from the oceans of Cabernet Sauvignon being made in California, he began working closely with grower partners and slowly started to put an increased focus on Cabernet Franc as part of the Steven Kent Winery range. In 2017, Steven launched l'Autre Côte Cabernet Franc, a nod to the the right bank of Bordeaux and the winery's flagship expression of Cabernet Franc. And today, Steven, alongside his son Aiden, and wife Beth, are working with about 15 acres of Cabernet Franc from select vineyards across the Livermore Valley, and in 2023 they made 13 different expressions of Cabernet Franc from a blanc de noir to different styles of rosé to reds. In addition to this, Steven has become a champion for the variety, creating an annual celebration called Cab Franc-a-Palooza that brings together producers from across the US and beyond, and he also writes and speaks affectionately about the variety as part of his newsletter and podcast Wine Saves Lives. So, today I chose the to open and talk about the Ghielmetti single vineyard Cabernet Franc as a way to share Steven's story with you because this is really the wine that started it all for Steven and his journey making Cabernet Franc.
Located in Alameda County and part of California's Central Coast region, the Livermore Valley is one of California's oldest wine growing regions. Even before Napa Valley became synonymous with world class Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, it was the pioneering Concannon and Wente families who were among the first to establish vineyards with these varieties in Livermore in the 1880s, and today it is estimated that up to 80% of California's Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnnay vines can be genetically traced back to the vines first planed by these families in Livermore. Today, there is about 3,200 acres under vine in the Livermore Valley, a mere 7% of the cultivated area of Napa Valley, and Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay remain the most planted varieties, and currently there is about only 60 acres of Cabernet Franc planted.
Situated about 50km due east of San Francisco, and bound by the Pleasanton and Sunol Ridges to the west and the Altamont Pass in the east, the Livermore Valley is considered a coastal valley region, and is the first coast valley east of San Francisco Bay. The viticultural area is an oval-shaped bowl that is about 40km long and 18km wide sit on an east-west axis, making it one of the few east-west oriented valleys in California. In addition to this, the valley floor sits up at a higher elevation that most coast valleys, ranging from about 100m above sea level in the west and rising to about 300m above sea level in the east, which contributes to the wider diurnal range between daytime and night time temperatures. And because of this east-west orientation, higher elevation and the gradual incline across the region, it is able to receive the cool air coming in off of San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean most notably in the afternoons, helping to moderate temperatures and giving the Livermore Valley slightly cooler temperatures overall than parts of Northern California. And in general, because of the way the breezes pick up speed as you move east along the valley, temperatures tend to get cooler as you move from west to east.
In terms of soils across the Livermore Valley, that majority of the valley floor and lower hillside sites are covered with deep alluvial soils that are derived from the parent materials of the surrounding hillsides. There is a mix of gravelly loam, sandy-loam, and clay-loam depending on where you are, with vineyards in the western part of the region tending to have slightly lighter sandier soils, and as you move east you can find more clay loam soils. The soils are rich in minerals like calcium and magnesium, have a more alkaline pH, and over all have very good drainage, making them ideal for viticulture. But because of the wide variability across the valley, site selection becomes critical, particularly for Cabernet Franc.
In addition to all of this, there is a unique climactic phenomenon that is happening in the Livermore Valley as a result of climate change that may serve to benefit Cabernet Franc over the long term. And this phenomenon is wind. Grape vines are generally very sensitive to wind, and can shut down and stop photosynthesis. During the warmest months of the year, July through September, as temperatures begin to increase in California's hot Central Valley on the eastern side of the Altamont Pass, this creates a vacuum-like effect pulling the the cold air from the Pacific Ocean and increasing wind speeds to around 25-30km/hour into the afternoons and early evenings, before they start to die down completely at night as the Central Valley cools.
Because the vines stop ripening in these windy conditions, the vines will need more time to ripen the fruit in the fall, so the winds are effectively slowing down ripening and lengthening the growing season. And when it comes time to harvest, which is generally about 2 to 3 weeks behind Napa Valley, they are able to pick fruit that is physiologically ripe but at lower sugar and potential alcohol levels. So with climate change, as the Central Valley is getting warmer, the Livermore Valley is essentially getting cooler and the growing season longer, and it is conceivable that in the future there may not be enough time to fully ripen Cabernet Sauvignon, and as a result, Cabernet Franc, which ripens generally 7 to 10 days ahead of Cab Sauv, may become the future of the Livermore Valley. In fact, Steven noted that since he began making wine in Livermore, he is picking Cabernet Franc and Cab Sauv on average two weeks later than he was even just 15 years ago.
So the Ghielmetti Vineyard is located in the southeast corner of the Livermore Valley about 5 miles east of downtown of Livermore. It is one of the most easterly sites in the region, sitting up on a gentle west-facing slope, ranging in elevation from about 260m above sea level at the bottom of the slope to about 290m at the top of the slope on the eastern side of the vineyard. Because of the vineyard's easterly position just before the Altamont Pass, the wind that comes in in the afternoon tends to be at its maximum impact right around this area, making it one of the windiest and coolest sites in the region. Steven shared that it is generally the last site to bud in the spring and the last to be harvested in the fall. There is about 3.7 acres of Cabernet Franc planted here, and the vines were planted in 1999 with clone 332, which is one of the clones from the Pyrenees region. There is a mix of soil types and textures across the vineyard blocks, but in the Cabernet Franc block specifically, the soils is a deep, fine grained Positas gravelly loam derived from sandstone and shale, with a balanced mix of sand, silt and clay in the topsoil, with upwards to about 50% clay content in the subsoil between 60 and 100cm. The vineyard considered one of the winery's estate vineyards that Steven manages himself, and it is farmed sustainably, and there is drip irrigation installed. And in terms of viticultural techniques, shoot thinning will be performed throughout, selective leaf removal on the western side of the canopy to increase sun exposure, and green harvesting will also take place about 60% through veraison.
In terms of the winemaking for this wine, the fruit is all hand-harvested at around 3 to 4am to ensure the fruit is cool coming into the winery. The fruit is all destemmed, sorted and lightly crushed. The fermentation takes place in smaller, 1.7-ton open top fermenters with selected yeast reaching a maximum fermentation temperature of about 27C. Punch downs are done during the fermentation to aid extraction, and the total time on skins is about 28 days. The free run wine and press wine are blended together prior to aging in mostly neutral 500L French oak puncheons for about 14 to 18 months.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Steven Kent Winery
Region: Central Coast, California
AVA: Livermore Valley
Vineyard: Ghielmetti Vineyard
Soil: Fine, Positas gravelly loam
Alcohol: 13.5%
