Wes Hagen is a wine educator, a wine historian, a vineyard manager, a writer of AVA proposals, and a damn good winemaker. He is a Renaissance man in the world of wine, connected inextricably to Santa Barbara County, where his family brand Clos Pepe made some of the finest Pinot Noirs of the 1990s and 2000s. He is also a fan of Cabernet Franc. Below, he gives Wine Saves Lives! he answers the question: What Does Cabernet Franc Mean?
The Cab Franc people are how Pinot Noir people used to be.
Cab Franc is the, is the grape to me that's attracting the seekers. It's attracting the people that are searching for something outside the norm. And so, to me, it's weird — because when I'm in that room full of Cab Franc people, I kind of feel the same way that I feel now in a post Sideways world at World of Pinot Noir.
These are my people. I feel like, like I mentioned, The Dead Show and one of my descriptions earlier… and I used to, follow the Grateful Dead quite a bit. And, um, when you're in the show, it feels like these, these are your people. And I feel like, I feel like Cab Franc people are my people.
I feel like, uh, I feel like the same way about them, that they're the ones that are looking, they're just in front of the trend, but the trend is never going to happen the way that we imagine it's going to happen. It's not going to be a Cab Sauv. It's always going to be a little bit sort of edgy, and I think that's where Cab Franc would prefer to be.
What Does Cabernet Franc Mean? - Wes Hagen