Great Wines with Long Island's Signature Grape: Cabernet Franc

Recently I had the immense pleasure of attending the first Blanc and Franc Summit hosted by the Long Island Wine Country (LIWC). The event was held on Nov.14 at RG/NY vineyards in Riverhead and included an extremely informative panel discussion and a gala tasting.

The panelists were: Roman Roth, partner and winemaker, Wölffer Estate Vineyard, Vanessa Price, resident sommelier, NBC’s Today Show as well as author of Big Macs & Burgundy, and the charming Russell Hearn, winemaker and founder, Suhru & Lieb Vineyards. The moderator was Leslie Merinoff-Kwasnieski, co-founder and distiller, Matchbook Distilling Co.

While the event highlighted both sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc, those in attendance, perhaps because of the chill in the autumn air, focused primarily on what really has become to be known as Long Island’s signature grape, cabernet franc. The panel traced the grape’s roots back to France, and its significance as one of the five noble grapes used to create Bordeaux wines. They discussed many of the reasons the grape thrives here on Long Island creating consistently excellent wines, reasons including Long Island’s cooler climate and well-draining soils.

Following the discussion attendees had an opportunity to taste cabernet franc from a number of the LIWC member vineyards. A list of the members includes: Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard, Bridge Lane Wine, Channing Daughters Winery, Chronicle Wines, Clovis Point, Coffee Pot Cellars, Del Vino Vineyards, Ev&Em Vineyards, Fire Island Vines, Kontokosta Winery, Lenz Winery, Macari Vineyards, Mattebella Vineyards, McCall Wines, One Woman Wines, Osprey’s Dominion, Palmer Vineyards, Paumanok Vineyards, Pellegrini Vineyards, Pindar Vineyards, RG|NY, Sannino Vineyard, Sparkling Pointe, Suhru & Lieb Vineyards, Terra Vite North Fork, Wölffer Estate Vineyard.

In keeping with complete transparency, the wines I’m writing about today, I tasted previous to the event. These are two cabernet francs from Wolffer Estate Vineyard and one cabernet franc from McCall Wines.

Wolffer Estate’s Cabernet Franc 2023, a robust gold label wine awarded 91 points by Wine Enthusiast in 2025, is deliciously rich and lusciously earthy with notes of dark cherry and bittersweet chocolate. Packed with flavor, this wine greets you as soon as you uncork the bottle. It retails for only $25.

Wolffer’s Caya Cabernet Franc 2021. Awarded 93 points from James Suckling. This wine is a bit lighter. It’s fresh with more bright cherry rather than dark cherry. This wine retails for $37.

And last, but far from least, is an amazing wine from McCall Wines: 2021 Cabernet franc. This wine is rich, dark, and handsome — oops! I mean delicious! But it’s still a great catch. Retailing for only $28, it is packed with notes of dark chocolate, coffee, and cherry.