2013 Vérité, Le Désir, Sonoma County, California, USA

Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc, it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard – it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St Émilion, where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils.

Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire, where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape’s herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgueil.