Painted Rock Estate Winery Cabernet Franc 2015

Deborah Podurgiel WSET IV Candidate rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

“Painted Rock” Estate Winery was so named after the five-century-old native pictographs discovered on the 60-acre property, once the largest apricot orchard in the British Commonwealth, until the orchard fell prey to the gypsy moth infestation of the late-1980s. The property was to become a vineyard, "The Black Hawk," but didn’t until John and Patricia Skinner acquired it, reconfigured it and planted it in Cabernet, Syrah and Chardonnay grapevines in 2005. Since then, Painted Rock winery and their estate wines have won many awards, not the least of which was the 2014/2015 InterVin International “Winery of the Year”. But Painted Rock Estate Winery is more about being a family affair then it is about winning awards. John Skinner’s vision then and now is still about creating “exceptional estate wines” and one of these is their Estate Grown 2015 Cabernet Franc.

I love Cabernet Franc and have tasted many a Loire and several of British Columbia’s single-varietal cab francs to know that this varietal shows so much range and diversity in cool climate vineyards and is increasingly showing promise in BC. So, I was thrilled to be able to sample Painted Rock’s, Estate Grown Cabernet Franc 2015 (unfiltered). This is a big wine at 15.3% abv, but the wine handles it so gracefully. In the glass the wine is deep, ruby red. The first note on the nose is a pronounced smoky vanilla followed up with violets, wild iris and cassis. Through the florals and cassis, dark raspberry, mocha and baked goods (like a raspberry Danish pastry) come through. Then, there is the pencil shavings, dried herbs and interesting replays of the florals, cassis and smoky vanilla.

When I finally got around to tasting it, on the palate, the wine is dry, medium-plus bodied with ripe, crushed raspberry, mocha, pencil shavings, earthy dried herbs, florals and a lingering white pepper finish. This is a wine to think about with many layers, replays, great structure and balanced acidity. Tannins are slightly grippy and working toward becoming velvety. Pair with an autumn sunset. However, since the wine is 15.3% abv, pair with roast herbed chicken, or a goat cheese, arugula, spring greens salad and raspberry vinaigrette

Monique Sosa rated this wine as 92/100 with the following review:

A divine blend of ripe black fruit and smoke aromas followed by deeply concentrated black plum, cassis, black licorice, dark chocolate and graphite minerality flavours. This BC Cabernet Franc is full-bodied with young developing (medium-high) tannins, scrumptious acidity, and a long cassis dark chocolate finish. A cellar worthy bottle (2020-2022) and, if drinking now, decant two hours prior to serving and enjoy with seared prime rib. Tasted Nov 2017 by @sommsosa | bespoketastings.ca

Jon Steeves rated this wine as 93/100 with the following review:

Gorgeous, complex, deeply concentrated, inky and spicy. Blackberry, licorice, plum, black pepper, savoury and dark chocolate. This Cab Franc is ready now and packed with balance and integrating tannins which will keep going for another decade. Pairs well with arachara beef tacos, braised beef or rare steak. Tasted 2015 vintage in Nov 2017 after 2h decant. 93 points. BespokeTastings