2018 The Debate - Cabernet Franc Napa Sleeping Lady Vineyard (750ml)

The Debate is a Napa Valley project founded in 2010 by winemaker Jean Hoefliger and business partner Rob McKay, built on the idea that good wine, like good conversation, thrives on differing points of view. Hoefliger honed his craft in Bordeaux at Chateau Lynch-Bages and Chateau Carbonnieux and later spent years as winemaker at Newton Vineyard and Alpha Omega before turning his attention to The Debate's collection of single-vineyard, single-variety wines, each chosen to highlight a different facet of Napa terroir.

Sleeping Lady Vineyard sits on the southern edge of Yountville and is considered the coolest of The Debate's three Cabernet Franc sites, giving the grapes here a finer, more elegant character than warmer sites nearby. The fruit is entirely barrel fermented before extended skin contact and aging of roughly 18 to 22 months in French oak, most of it new, allowing the variety's natural freshness to remain intact.

The wine shows deep garnet-purple color with aromas of wild blueberry, red currant, kirsch, lavender, and cardamom over a touch of dusty soil. Full-bodied with firm, fine-grained tannins, it finishes long and perfumed. Pair it with herb-roasted pork tenderloin, grilled quail, or a triple crème cheese.