The Esthetic Wonder of Cabernet Franc

The passage below is from my forthcoming book on Cab Franc which will be published on Substack starting in the next few months. As this is (in some ways) a work in progress, your comments and questions are encouraged.

---

Red and dark and lubricious; chili and herb, anxiety running through palates mid, the energy of acid, the tannic porch at the end, - ending the downward sprint - there to wait for the coming bowl of stars as the blessed night bears down, and the tang of fires upon the teeming beach - since finished for days - anoint you and whisper to me BEAUTY, the wellstone and keystone of all. Such is Cabernet Franc and the inexorable splendor and the aged wisdom that is hers and falls off her like rain.  To taste the unadulterated her, the unwooded her, virginal fruit spreading across the tongue with a transparent sheen, surprisingly light but wound to the center of all things, acid and tannin following as carriers of the train, to the setting of the throne where is pitched off the clumsy and ill-considered suitors.