Can you imagine the producers in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lodi all coming together to agree on a single red grape variety to promote as the signature red grape of Northern California? However improbable that may sound in the case of California’s North Coast, such an agreement has recently been reached among a group of winegrowers in the state of New York, who have united across the Finger Lakes, the Hudson Valley and Long Island wine regions to proclaim Cabernet Franc as the state’s signature red variety.

They have even formed an advocacy organisation, Cab Franc Forward, which they hope to use in their evangelising efforts on this theme. This past February, the organisation hosted a first-of-its-kind tasting, with 35 wineries from the state’s three wine regions pouring their rendition of Cabernet Franc for the press, trade and wine consumers.

‘On Long Island, we’d really been Merlot-focused from the beginning’, says Max Rohn, CEO of Wölffer Estate. ‘But the Merlot thing didn’t really work out, and for a long time we’ve been struggling for some sense of identity as Long Island. But gradually, on its own, Cabernet Franc was bubbling to the surface, and it became very apparent that it was the leader, and it had to be this way.’

Rohn called up his friend and neighbour Gabriella Macari of Macari Estate, and together they hatched a plan.

‘Max put the idea out and I 100% agreed’, says Macari. ‘But immediately I knew we had to sit down together as a group and taste, to make sure this made sense. I had a bunch of Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc in my cellar, so we got together with a few other winemakers in the room and tasted – and the quality was there. It was undeniable. Once we had all these wines in the glass, it was easy.’

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