A few years ago, I owned a wine bar in San Francisco, which gave me a front-row seat to a wine scene full of young, enterprising winemakers who work on a decidedly “indie” scale. Most of these people have day jobs as sommeliers or distributor sales reps, but nevertheless find a way to make and market their own wines: They traverse the state in search of grape-growers to partner with, spend their off hours grinding it out in cooperative custom-crush facilities, and bottle some of the tastiest, most authentic wine in California. Ben Herod of Nue Wilde is one such producer, and today’s beautiful Cabernet Franc is one such wine.
Carefully sourced, cleanly made, and as spot-on in its varietal character as anything from Chinon or Saumur-Champigny, this is the kind of wine you get when someone who tastes broadly is at the controls. Having regular access (via his wholesale sales jobs) to great wines from all over the world lends an invaluable perspective, and Ben embraces the new-generation ethos that great wine is “grown,” not “made.” His vineyard source, on the western side of the Chalk Hill AVA, gets its well-deserved shout-out on the label, and this tiny-production 2016 gets its well-deserved spot on the SommSelect platform. This is exactly the kind of wine we want to champion, not just for its spirit but its execution: indie street cred aside, the stuff is flat-out delicious, so don’t miss it!
Like most of his California contemporaries, Ben is a “micro-négociant” working with a far-flung assortment of growers. When he’s not dragging a bag of samples around the streets of Oakland and San Francisco, he’s traveling to places like Lodi and Lake County in search of grapes. Having first developed a taste for wine in college, he made his first few barrels of wine in a San Francisco garage in 2004; years later, he started the Oro en Paz label with a few friends, vinifying the wines in a cooperative facility on San Francisco’s Treasure Island. Taking some spelling liberties, he started Nue Wilde in 2016—a new solo project dedicated to wines fermented on wild yeasts only. The lineup is incredibly diverse and undoubtedly causes him to rack up some serious mileage on his car each year: there’s a Sémillon from the Luchsinger Vineyard in Lake County; Pinot Noirs from Russian River and Monterey; and several bottlings from the Busalacchi Vineyard in Lodi.
Today’s wine, meanwhile, hails from the Chalk Hill AVA, a warmer sub-section of the Russian River Valley so named for is chalky white soils of volcanic “tuff.” Now with a few years of age behind them, the few barrels Herod made of this 2016 were deemed ready to roll—and we got first dibs!
Ben notes that the Dunnsden Vineyard is on the west side of the Chalk Hill AVA and therefore feels more like Russian River (i.e. foggier, cooler) in terms of climate. He produced this 2016 using some whole grape clusters (about 25%), using only native yeasts for fermentation and neutral oak barrels for aging. His stated intention with this Cabernet Franc was to take inspiration from the Loire (rather than Bordeaux, which is more common in California), so he picked the grapes a touch early to maintain freshness. Even with a few years of bottle age, this ’16 maintains a relatively youthful ruby-purple color and primary aromas of black cherry, cranberry, and plum followed by Cabernet Franc’s signature savory notes: cigar wrapper, licorice, black pepper, wet clay. Loire aficionados will find strong similarities to more concentrated styles of Chinon, like the wines of Philippe Alliet, while everyone else will be content to drink a bright, energetic red with a well-modulated melding of fruit and earth. Decant it 15-30 minutes before serving in Bordeaux stems at 60 degrees and pair it with a French bistro classic like coq au vin, grilled hanger steak, or pot-au-feu. That’s another thing about this new generation: They love the Old School! Cheers!
