Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
It's easy to make Cab Franc tasty almost anywhere, but difficult to make it great. Pride succeeds in the later with mountain grapes that have concentrated flavors. Lush, opulent blackberry fruit is exquisitely offset by rich oak and dusty tannins. The texture is fabulous, at once light and dense.
Cellar Selection -
Wine & Spirits
Black in tone, the ripe, black cherry flavors of this wine are perfumed by the char of the new oak in which it aged, rounded by its time in oak to a plush feel. The texture is luxurious, while the flavors remain simple and blunt for now. It's a big, giving red from the top of Spring Mountain.
Cabernet Franc, a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the subtler and more delicate of the Cabernets. Today Cabernet Franc produces outstanding single varietal wines across the wine-producing world. Somm Secret—One of California's best-kept secrets is the Happy Canyon appellation of Santa Barbara. Here Cabernet Franc shines as a single varietal wine or in blends, expressing sumptuous fruit, savory aromas and polished tannins.
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.