Frontenac Noir

The drive from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan across Wisconsin and into Minnesota to the north of the Twin Cities was long, cold, and grueling for a group of people from the south. Even having a great vehicl to traverse the snow-covered landscape, we just don't have the clothes for us. But, where better to experience Frontenac Noir, the father of yesterday's Frontenac Gris than the state where it was developed.

Frontenac Noir was bred from a vitis raparia grape and something known as Landot Noir, not surprisingly bred in France by Pierre Landot (many grape breeders like the thought of indelibly etching their name in viticulture lore). It's a fairly light-bodied grape with intense natural sugars and good cold resistance. The otherwise unnamed vitis riparia grape with which it was bred was found growing wild in the winter in central Minnesota. And, naturally, the thoughts were that crossing two grapes that are cold-weather resistant, one already acclimated to the area, would produce an excellent local wine grape.

The key that needed to be discovered in producing this excellent cold-weather grape was a short growing season. The Landot grapes, generally, have late budbreak and early harvest and this was perfect. Combine that with the particular vitis riparia that was discovered happy and healthy in temperatures nearing -40C/-40F and a star was born, so to speak.

Frontenac Noir is blessed with high natural acidity and high natural sugars. This makes it very flexible for winemakers, but also necesstates malolactic fermentation to give the wine important balance. And, while it can be produced in a rosé, or as a traditional dry red wine, and is also sometimes made into a port style, we're focused today on the dry version.

The wines we are tasting today are a deep garnet color in the glass with just a very slight browning along the rim, even when young. On the nose, we get lots of red cherry bursting out at us. On the palate, however, the wine is much darker with purple and black plum, black currants, and a bit of dark chocolate. And, when aged in new rather than used or neutral oak, the combination of the oak and malolactic fermentation tends to make the chocolate into more of a chocolate-vanilla swirl.

Pair these wines with rich, wintry soups and stews, particularly those loaded with chicken and lamb and loads of legumes or perhaps with a savory mushroom roulade.