2020 Foxcroft Cabernet Franc

93 PTS — Rick VanSickle Deep, rich purple colour in the glass and an enticing nose of brambly raspberries, dark cherries, minty herbs, anise, some barrel spice notes and a splash of mocha. It benefits from polished and ripe tannins on the palate (thank you, vintage 2020!), supporting the dense red berries, black currants, herbs, dark chocolate, and oak spice notes through a long, lifted and finessed finish. A beauty of a Cab Franc that age a decade through 2034. Destemmed fruit was fermented naturally for 20 days prior to pressing. Pumped over to start fermentation and later punched down for extraction. Put to barrel to age for 19 months. This wine would not complete ferment and in the winter of 2020 yeast was added to try and finish the last few grams of residual sugar. Towards the spring of 2022 this wine started to taste like it represented the vineyard and was finally finished making itself (something we let the wine choose). Racked out of barrel, 50ppm sulphur added prior to bottling unfined and unfiltered. 2020 was a great year in Ontario! The year started out slightly cool, but warmed up and stayed warm. July had a few very hot weather days, but other than that it was smooth sailing all the way to harvest. A year to celebrate in Ontario wine! Rich chocolate and raspberries with a layer of menthol on the nose. Initially the acidity of this wine presents itself followed by flavours of leather, oak and red berries. Next come the soft and chalky tannins, a result of the extra aging time in barrel. Best drinking is 2026-2031.