A Scary Possibility with La Frenz

I had a bit of a scare on the BCWAS Bus Tour last weekend (and not just the scare of retribution for having maybe purchased a few more bottles than I was "permitted" under the brief loosening of the No Buy Leash).

No, the real scare was that, at one of the tasting events, I was party to a conversation where folks had recently tried some older La Frenz wines - and they'd concluded that the wines hadn't aged well at all. In fact, the comments were more along the lines of "they weren't even worth drinking."

Knowing that Boo and I still have a number of "older" La Frenz wines hanging around, I figured I'd better open one ASAP to see if we were going to be stuck with a bunch of dead wines.

931. 2005 La Frenz Cabernet Sauvignon (Naramata Bench - Okanagan Valley)

This Cab was the first one that I grabbed. I realize that a 2005 isn't what you'd normally think of as an older vintage, but it is getting on a bit for BC wines. With such a recent history to the wine industry here, most juries are still out on the ageability of our wines. All the same, La Frenz winemaker and owner, Jeff Martin, even states on the back label of this bottle that he figures it should age at least ten years. I was pretty sure that the conversation I was party to was talking about Cab though; so,it seemed to make sense to open one.

I was either going to be extremely disappointed or greatly relieved.

I'm pleased to say that our bottle was still in fine form. No signs of oxidation. Plenty of fruit (although not as much as it might have had earlier in its life). And enough tannins and acidity to give the wine a good balance on the palate. There was certainly still enough wine there to leave you wanting some food to go with it. The glass packed enough punch that you likely wouldn't want to stand around all night long, drinking this bottle just by itself.

I'm not exactly sure how many more bottles of La Frenz we have lying around, but, at least, I'm not going to worry so much that they all have to be opened immediately.

Not that I ever mind opening a bottle of La Frenz.