Cab Franc Clones in the Livermore Valley

Clonal variety makes for better wines (excerpted from my forthcoming Cab Franc book)

I recently wrote about the current status of Cab Franc plantings in the Livermore Valley here, and today — in this short post — I’ll briefly adumbrate our Valley’s Cab Franc clonal diversity and why this diversity is important from the standpoint of quality and interest.

Grapevines, like many fruiting trees, are propagated, not by the planting of seeds, but by the grafting of the varietal piece of a vine to a rootstock. When I take a bud from a vine of Cab Franc in the Ghielmetti Vineyard in the eastern foothills of the Livermore Valley and graft it to the trunk of a Chardonnay vine on the west side of town, the resulting fruit will be genetically identical to the vine from which the bud was taken.

This clone or selection of Cab Franc will have been chosen because it exhibits certain qualities in the vineyard that mark it as superior to other vines, and the grower wants to share those characteristics with more vines.

Each clone has its own set of structural and organoleptic qualities, and — usually — clones can be compared to the spices that a chef might use. The greater the breadth of complexity of flavor and aroma available to the winemaker, the greater the potential for better and more interesting wines. Consequently, each time we work with a grower to plant a new vineyard we advocate for at least part of it to be planted to a new clone.

Characterized by red to dark fruit, Medium - body and Medium + acidity [clone 4] produces the most beautiful Cab Franc in Livermore at this time.