Pleb Urban Winery Cabernet Franc - Refreshingly Delicious

A lighter style of Cab from North Carolina, the refreshingly delicious Pleb Urban Winery Cabernet Franc.

Cabernet Franc from the Jones von Drehle vineyard in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina.

This post is sponsored by Pleb Urban Winery:
Asheville’s only urban winery is an unconventional space to enjoy wine, art, and community. Using old world methods, we produce small batch craft wines with locally sourced grapes from Western North Carolina.

The Pleb Urban Winery Cabernet Franc is most commonly available in a 500ml or 1L growler size at the winery. A 750ml bottle has an SRP of $28 (Saturday Splurge).

From the winery:

Natural wine, carbonic maceration.

Open top barrel fermented with native yeast, produced by hand destemming, this wine presents notes of olive tapenade, cherry cola, pomegranate, plum and black tea.

12.2% Alcohol

While North Carolina isn’t the first US region most people think of when they talk about wine, it actually once was. Winemaking dates all the way back to the 17th century and in fact, the state claims to have the oldest cultivated grapevine in America – the Mothervine, a 400+ year-old muscadine planting with two foot trunks and vines that cover almost an entire acre.

Up until the mid-19th century winemaking thrived in the state. The Civil War obviously took a toll on the industry, but it was the banning of alcohol production in 1909 followed by Prohibition ten years later that brought wine to standstill.

Lucky for us the industry is growing once again and producing some really excellent examples of wine like the Vidal Blanc we reviewed a few weeks ago and today’s Cabernet Franc.

The 2018 Pleb Urban Winery Cabernet Franc opens with pleasing aromas of black cherry, a little spice, touches of cola and licorice and a hint of olive. Smooth and tasty, this is not your typical Cabernet Franc but a younger, light-bodied style that is quite refreshing and only 12% alcohol. In the mouth it features similar flavors to the nose plus light spice notes interwoven nicely with the fruit. Black tea notes lead into the dry, long, refreshing finish. Excellent!