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Wine is set to flow this weekend at the Livermore Valley’s annual celebration of the Cabernet Franc.
Hosted at the Purple Orchid Wine Country Resort & Spa, the CabFranc-A-Palooza is set to feature approximately 50 wineries from the Livermore Valley and beyond, each serving their take on Cab Franc.
Known as fruit-forward with herbal aromas, Cab Franc will be served alongside food trucks with prize giveaways and a live musical performance by Bay Area classic rock singer-songwriter Dan Durkin.
Steven Kent Mirassou, festival co-founder and owner of Steven Kent Winery, hopes that the festival will bring greater attention to this signature varietal of the Livermore Valley and the wineries making it here.
“Cabernet Franc is the most delicious and food-friendly grape in the world,” Mirassou said in a statement. “The enthusiasm from both wineries and guests has been incredible — it’s clear we’re part of something bigger: a growing Cab Franc movement.”
Wineries attending the event include those in the Cab Franc Guild of Livermore Valley, which formed earlier this year to create a “world-class identity” for the area with the varietal. These guild members include Almost Famous Wine Co., Cellar 13 Winery, Concannon Vineyard, Steven Kent Winery and more.
Other wineries also set to attend include Napa’s Grgich Hills Estate, Paso Robles’ LXV Wine, Oregon’s Quady North and New York’s Six Eighty Cellars.
Since Cab Franc is not associated with a single growing area, the resulting wine is the product of many wine-making perspectives, Mirassou said. Along with those perspectives comes a variety of styles.
To Mirassou, the variety stands as a “grape of discovery” for consumers, retailers and winemakers, who create reds, whites and rosés from the grapes.
“There’s a more playful attitude around this grape variety than there is for cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir, which I think are taken sometimes too seriously,” Mirassou said.
Rather than a “stuffy” wine tasting, Mirassou intends the event as a party to “illuminate the variety in a way that allows for increased appreciation and fun”.
The third annual CabFranc-A-Palooza is scheduled to run from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday (June 8). Tickets and more information are available at cabfrancapalooza.com.
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