Photo credit: Frank Family Vineyards Facebook Page
Tom Hockel at Spring City Wine House in Waukesha continues with virtual tastings for his customers. I was excited to see one for Frank Family Vineyards. This is one of my go to Cabernet Sauvignons when I see it on a wine list and I’m unsure of other options I order Frank Family. When you sign up, Tom provides you tasting samples in small bottles, 6 pours in total. It’s a great price for a tasting, just $20 for non-club members. Note to self, need to join his wine club.
The wine representative from Frank Family Vineyards was located in Chicago. She was very interactive and provided an overview of the winery and vineyard locations. As we tasted through the wines, she provided the maps on Zoom of the vineyards where the wines came from. Randi and Todd hosted at their house. After acquiring the Riedel tasting set, we had to use those glasses again for this tasting. Of course, our experimentation continued with using a standard wine glass versus the Riedel.
We started this tasting with the 2018 Carneros Chardonnay. Using the Riedel Chardonnay glass really brought out the characteristics in the wine and the vanilla finish was pronounced. Out of the standard wine glass the finish was much more acidic. The fruit forward layers in the chardonnay were really delicious. I’m normally not a huge chardonnay fan, but this one went on the purchase list. The second wine was the 2016 Lewis Vineyard Reserve Chardonnay. In the Riedel glass, this wine tasted like a traditional big, buttery chardonnay that you expect from California.
The interesting history of Frank Family was the work Rich Frank did early on with Koerner Rombauer. They partnered until Rich was ready to go out on his own. For those of you that don’t know, Rombauer is know for traditional California buttery, oaky chardonnay.
Next up, the 2017 Carneros Pinot Noir, a light body Pinot. Tasting it in the Riedel Pinot Noir glass did make a difference, but I prefer an Pinot with more body than this one. My favorite Pinots drink similar to a merlot than a very traditional light bodied Pinot. We then tried the 2017 Napa Valley Zinfandel. I’ve always loved the Zin from Frank Family, I had purchased a reserve Zin on a previous trip and tasting at Frank Family. My friend Marie used to be in their club, so we visited the tasting room several times on various trips. This is on the list for our next visit, hopefully in late October if we can make it work. I liked this Zin, it wasn’t as jammy as some zins, but it also wasn’t a pepper bomb that some Zinfandels can be. The Zinfandel is on my purchase list, it can definitely age a few more years and be delicious.
On to my favorite wine, the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, an all time favorite of mine for it’s consistent flavor and structure. It’s my go to wine at Gordon Ramsay Steak in Paris Las Vegas. They have the half bottle on their wine list and it’s a better value than buying wine by the glass, the bonus is I get a wine that I love. The 2017 is young, but still had the structure and complexity I really enjoy in the Frank Family Cabernet.
The final wine of the night, the 2016 Rutherford Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This reserve is really good, doesn’t have the typical Rutherford dust nose. The finish was very smooth, but for the price I preferred the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
My next scheduled virtual tasting is another Spring City Wine House virtual tasting with Gamba Vineyards of Sonoma. Gamba has one of my favorite Zinfandels that I originally discovered at Storyhill BKC.
Cheers to the next tasting.