Cabernet Franc wines from France, Napa and Columbia Valley

SOMETIMES the gallery of Bordeaux varieties resembles a dynamic trio of comic-book heroes: Cabernet Sauvignon is the beefy, muscle-bound brute -- Lord of the Medoc, as well as of Napa Valley and points beyond. Merlot is rather willowy by comparison but pleasingly so, a relative lightweight that gets by on finesse, sometimes at the expense of character. Somewhere between Cabernet Sauvignon's intestinal fortitude and Merlot's all-purpose weeniness a third variety lurks, a tween called Cabernet Franc.

By Patrick J. Comiskey

April 30, 2008