Vine Path Blog 7/21: Frenchtown Farms
Frenchtown Farms
Vine Path Blog 07/21
When we think of Californian wine we think of Napa, America’s first designated AVA. Napa is a tiny little place in the Bay Area. California is a massive, sprawling, geologically complicated place. For perspective, you could fit Italy in it twice over. Italy has well over 500 unique grapes growing in what feels like a hundred of different designated regions. California on the other hand is famous for only a handful of grapes planted in a handful of places. This is not to put down CA as a wine region, rather to emphasize the potential of the region, to show how much there is to grow into and discover about it. For instance, has anyone heard of North Yuba AVA? Most likely not. Nestled in the Sierra Foothills (the home of great wineries like Ridge, Forlorn Hope, and Mount Eden), North Yuba is a completely unique terroir with an absolutely bizarre history behind it. It also happens to produce some of the greatest wines we’ve ever had in the United States.
Vineyards surround the performance amphitheater at the Renaissance Winery.
Vineyards surround the performance amphitheater at the Renaissance Winery.
If the wines of the region are as great as so many of us say they are, why then is North Yuba not a bigger thing? The reason lies in its origins and it’s subsequent neglect. The AVA was established after a cult called the Fellowship of Friends (not making this up) set up shop in the area and started planting out vineyards as a part of their leader’s obsession with ancient Greek and Roman lifestyles. The Fellowship planted so many vines across so many acres in North Yuba that the state of California was legally obliged to designate it an AVA. The Renaissance Vineyards had been born. The Fellowship’s former winemaker, Gideon Beinstock, is a legendary figure in Californian wine history, credited in some insider circles with making some of the best bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon in the history of the state. I won’t go into the gritty details of this wacky moment in American wine history but I encourage you to dig into it by reading the amazing piece on the Fellowship, Renaissance, and the North Yuba AVA that the incredible Esther Mobley at the San Francisco Chronicle penned just a few years ago. Today there are only three wineries in North Yuba, only three wineries keeping this region alive, and this month’s collection is from one of them, Frenchtown Farm.
Cara and Aaron Mockrish in their home vineyard.
Frenchtown Farms was established by Aaron and Cara Mockrish, a married couple with the original intention to build a vegetable farm in North Yuba. Then they had an experience with a bottle from Gideon Beinstock’s Clos Saron label and their plans instantly changed. The Mockrish’s started working with Gideon at Clos Saron in 2015 making wine and getting a masterclass in North Yuba fruit. Shortly thereafter, Frenchtown Farms was born and their first vintage emerged. Through their collaboration with Gideon, the couple was able to secure fruit from the old Renaissance vineyard, as well as an allowance to tend some of the long abandoned plots that once produced some of the best wines in the state. There are two major reasons why we are so excited to have these wines. One, the North Yuba AVA is a terroir that needs more investment. The caliber of the wines from this region is impossible to ignore and we should be making more of them. Two, Frenchtown Farms is a winery with loads of potential. We’re excited to see what they will do in the future. We’re also excited to see how their wines taste in the future too, since a high potential for aging is a hallmark of the region.
Frenchtown Farms Cotillion 2019
This blend of equal parts Syrah and Grenache is 100% North Yuba fruit from their home vineyards on the farm. Fully destemmed, fermented in steel, and aged in neutral oak barrels for 12 months. This wine, like all the wines in their collection, are made with no winemaking inputs except a pinch of SO2 at bottling to keep it stable. North Yuba is a high altitude AVA as far as California is concerned, which means that the wines have lower overall alcohol, more preserved freshness, tougher tannic structure, and more herbaceousness than, lets say, the wines of the Bay Area. There is a definite French inflection to this wine that you won’t find anywhere else in the state.
Frenchtown Farms Indigeaux 2017
Nineteen Harts
Indigeaux is a unique blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (70%), Merlot (%25), and a white grape called Semillon (5%). At Clos Saron, and at Renaissance before, Gideon has a tendency to blend in a small proportion of white grapes into his reds to supply some extra freshness, acid, and tension. While that might sound weird, it’s a winemaking technique that isn’t as uncommon as it might seem. For instance, some of the best Syrah in France come from a place called Cote Rotie and they are always made with a pinch of Viognier blended in. The Mockrish’s inherited this maneuver and used it to great effect. For a wine of its age, it still tastes extremely fresh and would easily keep for 10 years or more. Like the Cotillion, we get a more French inflection on this wine. Indigeaux points to Margaux instead of Napa.
Nineteen Harts
Frenchtown Farms Nineteen Harts 2017
For my money, this is the most exciting bottle in the collection. While the fruit in Cotillion and Indigeaux comes primarily from the Frenchtown Farms estate, the fruit In Nineteen Harts comes from the Renaissance Vineyard. This is old-vine California Syrah, once again blended with a pinch of white wine, Roussanne in this case. This is the kind of vineyard that most winemakers dream of working with. This wine demonstrates the true potential of the area for great winemaking. Spicy and dense and full of character, like the Indigeaux, we can expect this to live for another 10 years.