2019 Le Macchiole Paleo

Cabernet Franc from Bolgheri

Many of the influential, mainstream critics are enamored of great draughts of new oak, and - indeed - add value to the wine (in the form of higher points) for this characteristic. I’ve always found that chocolatey, lactic-y element to stand in the way of the truer expressions of terroir that more neutrally-wooded wines naturally show.

When you graffiti over the pointillistic intricacy of Cab Franc’s herbaceousness with the battleship gray of new oak…it beggars a lack of understanding about what makes great Cabernet Franc…great. 

There is a non-subtle difference in the purity of fruit and the structure of a wine that has received the benefits of old-oak micro-oxidation instead of the terroir-destroying, grandstanding narcissism of new barrels.