It seems with every gain there is a fallback with COVID. I suspect as everyone is so hyped with the various COVID vaccines perhaps a new vaccine resistant strain will emerge and we’ll be tossed on our asses again. So I suppose we sit tight and wait. Hopefully the news will be good and persistently so.
So why not surf the wave the best we can.
We try a Red Tractor 2017 Cabernet Franc from Creekside Estate Winery in Niagara.
Cabernet Franc is perhaps Ontario’s consistently high-quality red grape.
It has a black cherry colour that at times, especially when pouring, almost has a purple tinge to it. It looks like a high-test Cabernet Franc.
On the nose that traditional Ontario Cabernet Franc black cherry, chocolate covered cherry but some rather unexpected high-toned blueberry and fresh picked Ontario raspberries. Rather delightful!
Now on the palate. I am again surprised by its moderate tannins as most Cabernet Franc’s I have tried from Ontario have less tannic composition. But for me this makes the wine more food worthy with its “traction” and perhaps that is why it is called Red Tractor? It has a solid foundation of black cherry with underpinnings of blueberry, cranberry and rhubarb pie.
This wine has character and is full bodied and more expressive of its identity than most Ontario Cabernet Francs. A medium finish. A top-notch Cabernet Franc that will surf right into 2025.
As for food matching a great beef barbeque wine. For vegheads it might do well with a vegetarian chile with organic sweet potatoes from California.
Assuming you are surfing now this wine takes you under the curl of a huge wave. Ah time for that 1959 Gidget movie!
(Red Tractor 2017 Cabernet Franc, VQA Four Mile Creek, Creekside Estate Winery Jordan, Ontario, $25, LCBO # 14429, 750 mL,14%, Robert K. Stephen a little birdie told me so Rating 93/100).
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