We lovingly decant wines from the West Coast to Western Samoa and beyond, and then give you a highly opinionated, pocket-sized review.

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Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2018

Their words

“The 2018 Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc is produced from tenacious vines that for over 20 years have thrived in the rugged South Okanagan desert. The grapes were brought in at full ripeness and fermented in stainless steel tanks for 2 weeks. During the fermentation process, the wine was pumped over twice daily to enhance flavour and colour extraction. The wine then went through malolactic fermentation and was aged in a blend of French and American oak barrels for 18 months.”

Suggested perfect pairings

Ever ask yourself who chooses a gas barbecue over a charcoal one? If you’re one of the misguided many, there’s zero judgement here if you’re living on the 54th floor of a circa-1917 wood-frame building with a sprinkler system that hasn’t worked since Herbert Hoover was president. As for the rest of you, haul that Fire Magic Diamond Series Echelon to the dump el pronto and break out the credit card for something where you’ll be cooking with live fire. Don’t worry about the fact that Vancouver is drier these day than Pelican Point in Nambia—the odds of an errant spark sending the entire neighbourhood in flames are slim as long as you keep the lid locked down on your Big Green Egg, Weber Smokey Mountain, or garage-sale Char-Griller. Don’t forget the chunks of cherry wood, hickory, or mesquite.

This is important because Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc is a decidedly barbecue-friendly wine. Coming from the sunbaked hills of the South Okanagan—this a bold, big-character offering with enough swagger that you can forget about the albacore tuna or grilled B.C. spot prawns. Instead reach for the rosemary-crusted rack of lamb, marvellously marbled rib eye, or Fraser Valley young duck with sour-cherry-and-port reduction.

Duly noted

Not to sound obsessed with charcoal or anything, but few things in this world are more satisfying than a piece of meat that’s been seared on a live-fire. There’s a level of complexity—smoky, woodsy, and beautifully charred—you don’t get with gas. Open-fire cooking goes right back to the caveman times, and there’s a reason that it endures today.
Pop the cork on Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc and you get a heady rush of French and American oak, Virginia flue-cured tobacco, and vanilla-laced dark chocolate. Let it breathe a bit, and then get ready for ripe-to-bursting Pacific blackberry, Okanagan-grown Skeena cherries, and red-currant fruit leather.

While all that probably makes Black Sage Vineyard Cabernet Franc sound sweeter than Georgia Honeysuckle, it shouldn’t—this great bang-for-buck winner is dry and pleasantly earthy, which is to say pefect for, you guessed it, evening hang-outs with friends around the barbecue. A barbecue that—in tribute to your caveman forefathers (not to mention Victor Arguinzoniz, Lennox Hastie, Niklas Ekstedt, and Tootsie Tomanetz)—is powered by charcoal. Get that Char-Griller fired up, and don’t skimp on the Cariboo rib eye, New Zealand rack-of-lamb, and, most importantly of all, straight-outta-Texas hickory chunks.