2014 Lang and Reed Cabernet Franc North Coast 750 ml

Very Tasty and Complete Cellar-Stuffer

Nobody is wiser about Napa Cabernet Franc than John and Tracey Skupny, who’ve championed this Loire-Valley and Bordeaux variety for more than two decades. Lang & Reed has landed on the wine lists at Mustards and The French Laundry, but remarkably, they’ve resisted the high prices their reputation and praise could command. If you happened to be the one dinner at the Laundry who ordered the last bottle of a very rare, old Lang & Reed for $325 — drop us a line. We’d love to know how it tasted. For everyone else out there, this 2014 Lang & Reed Cabernet Franc is “very tasty and complete, aromatic and complex,” according to Wine Spectator, and at $22.99 it belongs in your cellar, at least twelve bottles deep.

Lang & Reed’s Cabernet Franc has long been a fixture on celebrated wine lists like those at The French Laundry, Mustards Grill and A.O.C. Sommeliers and wine-lovers alike know that nobody knows the Bordeaux variety better than John and Tracey Skupny, and this 2014 Lang and Reed Cabernet Franc North Coast shows off their expertise. This juicy, complex expression captures the essence of the grape and a Napa Valley.  If you haven’t enjoyed the fruit of the Skupnys’ wisdom, now’s your chance.

John Skupny was listening to Steely Dan’s “Aja” for the third time in one single marathon night of waiting tables when he knew he would pursue a viticultural career. His pretzel logic worked — Skupny moved to Napa and got to work under Chuck Wagner, Bernard Portet, and Dan Duckhorn. As he honed his craft, John and his wife Tracey felt the pull of the mystique of the Loire Valley’s great Cabernet Francs.

The Skupnys fully surrendered to Cabernet Franc’s siren song in 1993, launching Lang & Reed to pursue a Bordeaux expression on Napa soil. Their fealty to Cabernet Franc earned the respect of Food & Wine Magazine, which reasoned that the winery’s pursuit “would get them points for tenacity even if they weren’t also making really good wine.”

They continue to pursue the perfect Cabernet Franc, and this 2014 shows exquisite purity, culled from Napa, Sonoma, and Lake Counties, including grapes from the renowned T Bar T Ranch in Alexander Valley. The result is a deftly blended North Coast California Cabernet Franc answer to Chinon, combining Loire Valley structure with the New World’s deeply integrated fruit flavors, vibrantly acidic backbone, and solid tannin structure.