Cabernet Franc: What It Is And How It’s Changing

By Cole Swanson
April 19, 2025

Cabernet Franc is an aromatic mid-ripening red grape with thinner skins than Cabernet Sauvignon and known for its lighter-bodied style with elegant structure.

As the third-most planted grape in Bordeaux, it is a common blending partner to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, where it adds acidity and richness to wines. Outside of Bordeaux, it is most famously associated with the Loire Valley, France – specifically Chinon, Bourgueil, St-Nicolas de Bourgueil, and Saumur-Champigny – where it has been cultivated since the 17th C, and often consumed as a single varietal still wine.

TYPICAL FLAVORS

When Underipe: Vegetal, herbaceous, stalky

Fully Ripe: Mint, brambleberry, strawberry, plum, peppercorn, green bell pepper, tobacco 

Cool Climates: Florality, raspberry, blackberry, green bell pepper, light-medium tannins, earth, savory

Warm Climates: Brambleberry, strawberry, plum, cayenne pepper, plump tannins, graphite, cedar, leather, tobacco, and mint-tinged red fruit

When Added to Blends: Contributes depth, aromatics, soft tannins, and richenss

Compared to Cabernet Sauvignon, it ripens earlier – about one week – aiding its ability to be planted in cooler sites or in cooler soils, such as clay and limestone. These factors prove important in the Left Bank Bordeaux, France where Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blends overpower single varietal wines. This is mostly because the moderate climate of this region does not always allow for Cabernet Sauvignon to fully ripen, and so adding Cabernet Franc to the blend will create a wine that is greater than the sum of its parts.

As a single varietal, Cabernet Franc boasts the high acidity of Cabernet Sauvignon (though higher), the velvety tannins of Merlot, and is most famous for its bell pepper notes, due to the compound pyrazine. This flavor can also be found in Sauvignon Blanc.

WHERE CABERNET FRANC GROWS

Cabernet Franc is relatively versatile, with the potential to be planted in both cooler and warmer regions of the world. However, it is often found in cooler sites, like Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy and the Loire Valley, and it is in the former where its reputation has cemented what consumers have imagined Cabernet Franc to be for much of its time on the market.

Green, stalky, harsh tannins, high acidity, delicate and easy-drinking.

However, for the past two decades Loire Valley winemakers have started to explore growing Cabernet Franc at different ripeness levels, often letting them hang on the vine longer, and transitioning from the old ways of winemaking to newer ones that are proving to create a more elegant style.

In warmer parts of the world, oenologists utilize its versatility and high acidity to create Cabernet Franc that is richer. 

WHERE CABERNET FRANC GROWS: COOL CLIMATES

Touraine, Loire Valley - Chinon, Bourgueil, St-Nicolas de Bourgueil, and Saumur-Champigny

Typical Flavors: Florality, raspberry, blackberry, green bell pepper, light-medium tannins, earth, savory, elegant structure.

Planted in sandy soils - light and fruity

Planted in limestone and clay and on south-face slopes - more tannic

Cabernet Franc is well-suited to cool climates, like the Loire Valley  – which has often been considered to be the most northerly point where grapes intended for still wine can grow –  thanks to its cold-hardiness or capability of withstanding colder winter temperatures well, and much better than other red grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah.

For much of its past, the style and reputation of Loire Cabernet Franc has predominantly been that of green bell pepper with over-extracted tannins coming from grapes that were harvested when not fully ripe.

This is much in thanks to Loire Valley winemakers attempting to compete with those in Bordeaux, where the warmer region can grow Cabernet Franc destined for high-quality red blends that are fuller-bodied.

However, in attempting to mimic this fuller-bodied style, winemakers have, in the past, over-extracted the tannins by over-indulging in a technique called pumpovers, often aimed to extricate tannins and color. But this practice resulted in roughly tannic and stalky wine that were still lighter-bodied than Bordeaux and unbalanced.

What sounds like a potential issue, was actually well-received by Parisians, an important demographic for Loire Cabernet Franc. But because 60% of the world's Cabernet Franc is planted in the Loire, the style adored by Parisians became the style accustomed by the world.

The potential for what could be was rarely considered until 2000 when MW Sam Harrop, a winemaker and consultant, helped to change how winemakers of the Loire created Cabernet Franc. Through his teachings, he assuaged them to forget about competing with Bordeaux, and to focus on the qualities the cool climate Loire terroir provides and the naturally high acidity of Cabernet Franc.

The result was wines that were well-structured, elegant, and balanced.

WHERE CABERNET FRANC GROWS: WARMER CLIAMTES

Outside of the Loire Valley the richer-Cabernet-Franc movement has begun to shine, with warmer regions of the world like Stellenbosch, South Africa; the Napa Valley AVA; the Columbia Valley AVA, Washington state; and Tuscany, Italy all crafting single varietal Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Franc-dominant blends that are more robust with silky tannins and smoked meat.

As David Williams, the deputy editor of The World of Fine Wine, writes in an article for the “World of Fine Wine” magazine regarding what “ripeness” means, “The nature of ripeness has been one of the more contested fields of wine aesthetics in recent years—and no grape variety better embodies the difficulties inherent in defining this most elusive and evanescent of concepts than Cabernet Franc.”

The tactic of harvesting riper Cabernet Franc is still relatively new around the world, thanks to the former reputation of the Loire Valley.

But as more winemakers buy into the potential of what Cabernet Franc could be, those in warmer climates are beginning to craft Cabernet Franc that is more robust than those of cooler climates, resulting in wines with silky tannins and great complexity.

Stellenbosch, South Africa

The most notable winery in South Africa producing Cabernet Franc is Raats Family Winery, located in the Polkadraai Hills, making both red blends and single varietals. Wines like their 2021 vintage show complex flavors of rosemary, lavender and thyme with spicy notes of nutmeg, cloves, star anise, minerality influenced by the ocean, and rich dark fruits.

This stereotypically hot region of the world has a Mediterranean climate that is cooler than others of similar latitude thanks to the ocean breezes, varying altitudes, and rain. Because of this, winemakers are capable of growing warmer climate varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon that may otherwise over-ripen in such a hot climate.

These factors also allow for cooler-to-moderate climate grapes to be planted, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Pinotage (a crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsault, which was created in Stellenbosch).

Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy; Bolgheri, Italy; Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, France; the Columbia Valley AVA, Washington state; the Napa Valley AVA, California; Ontario, Canada; Colchagua Valley, Chile

COMMON WINEMAKING TECHNIQUES

Pre-fermentation Maceration - Can be used to good effect if the fruit is ripe enough. Too often it is used on green, unripe fruit. In this instance the process merely enhances the unripe, herbaceous notes.

Post-fermentation Maceration - This tactic was implemented in the Loire Valley in 2000 in replace of daily pumpovers, which extracted too many green notes and harsh tannins. Post-fermentation maceration extracts tannins in a more gracious manner, resulting in a more balanced and elegant wine.

Malolactic Fermentation/Conversion - Adds complex flavors and texture. This is often completed in warmer climates or when Cabernet Franc has firmer tannins post fermentation.

Oak Barrel Aging - Wines that have aged in oak barrels after fermentation can age longer in the bottle than their counterparts