Black Swift 2013 Cabernet Franc DV 750ml

Farmed in a prestigious small vineyard along the new Golden Mile Bench appellation, Desert Valley Vineyard is a perfect home for muscular Cabernet Franc. It should almost go without saying our excitement for this variety in The Okanagan, and this Swift embodies the potential for Franc in a New World and robust style.

The Desert Valley Vineyard lays upon a unique climate and soil type. Being on the Western Slope, this gets mostly direct morning sun which creates longer and cooler growing conditions in a paradoxical sense in the heat of the South Okanagan. The soil itself is super rocky, old alluvial river bed type. The adage we’ve applied to soil is ‘With Clay-Limestone, you taste the soil. In river rocks, you taste the grapes’ and this shows in the wine; the classic notes of bright raspberry, pencil lead and some mint and eucalyptus undertones shine right through despite the overt intensity of the wine itself.

Once at the winery, we fermented the wine at 28 degrees on the skins for 40 days, allowing for maximum extraction and concentration. Post fermentation, we aged the wine in new French oak for 24 months with minimal racking and intervention. This Cabernet Franc is decidedly youthful and enthusiastic right now, but the complexity and subtlety is already evident. Not lacking in tannic structure, this wine is surprisingly drinkable at this stage in its life, while still having lots of room to grow. The silkiness and texture is what really amazes at this stage in development.

Cellar for 15+ years.

--Winemaker