October 10, 2023 - Last one of these in the cellar. Been a few years since my last bottle but having another nice night with the HMCs at Chops so why not? Carol is finally able to enjoy a glass again and she'll love it!
Dark garnet in the glass at the pnp into a decanter. Sampled a sip and bingo.....it's about ready to go so back into the bottle to take to the restaurant 2 hours from now. Nose of cherry liqueur, slight herbal quality. Dense red fruit with power. This hit everyone's sweet spot tonight, especially Carol's. Continued to drink beautifully throughout the 2+ hours at dinner. Towards the end it developed a wonderful cinnamon component on the palate as well. How I wish I had more of these......just beautifully done by Kirk Venge and B Cellars!
December 3, 2021 - Just another evening of good wine and cheer (Chilly Noe Valley): Another guest to the tasting via the ever generous Cyclist. Giant on the nose and palate with cherry-berry liquer, sweet spice, dark florals, wet earth and just a hint of bittersweet chocolate. Deep purple, full bodied, medium to thick legs. Integrated tannins, virtually no perceptible acidity, and, oh yes, there is heat. Medium+ complexity, high persistence and intensity. Ok, full disclosure here: I struggle with Cab Franc as a lead player (although I love the way a bit interacts with CS, and I did just give a 99 to the 88% Cerro Sur) and I'm a Kirk Venge skeptic; even though sfwl is always out there to challenge his assumptions, this wine on this night did nothing to make me change my mind. There's some interesting stuff going on here--not that much of it seems to have anything to do with what I associate with CF--but everything feels overwhelmed by booziness and untempered sweet fruit. Surely, this would have benefited from more air, and while I'm always reluctant to believe that these sweet, high alcohol wines will be something more in the future than what they are now, who knows, maybe it will be, as some people far more knowledgeable than I on this thread of the ways of Messr. Venge and his compadres believe it will be, but for my tastes, I'd seriously air this out at this point or wait on it in that hope. Anyway, I'm withholding judgment, or at least a point rating, as any score I'd assign would be in a different galaxy from most of the others. I have a '16 B LPV which has at least as good of a CT score as this one. I'll air it and hope for the best. Different strokes and all that, and thanks to Cyclist, even if this wasn't my cup of tea.
May 16, 2021 - A solid wine. Decanted about an hour.......hefty fruit, alcohol and a tinge of acidity on opening. This blew off and calmed down over the hour. Cardinal/garnet red fruit in the glass, earthy notes on the nose along with some herbal qualities I can't quite place. The wine is clean, well put together and definitely true to the varietal but it seems to be lacking something. Layers? Depth of fruit? It seems just a tad simple. Hard to say that while still giving the wine a 95, but I was expecting more given the previous reviews and the passage of time......
May 1, 2021 - You've saved the girl but now you're on the roof deck in Dubai having an exquisite meal in mixed company. There is no way out of this alive for you...unless. You pull out a 2016 B Cellars Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Cabernet Franc. The perfect weapon. It oozes into your orifice with such silky, velvety mouthfeel breaking apart into a hundred fireworks of fresh dark fruit and gravel with a hint of herbs to wash the weight away. It lingers. It lingers for the rest of the day, letting you know it saved your life.
July 29, 2019 - Having experienced what I thought was some of the best Cab Franc ever yesterday as the primary varietal in the Bordeaux blend 2013 Tenuta di Biserno Biserno, I turned to a Napa Cab Franc today to check myself. And hey, this 2016 B Cellars Cab Franc is really rocking!
The Biserno has some old world sensibilities blended with the new world whereas this Kirk Venge single-varietal creation is a full-on new world black raspberry masterpiece. It's not limited to just that single fruit note, though, with vanilla, cacao, minerals, and licorice driving the stunningly deep, ripe, and concentrated core through a lengthy if a bit tart and hot finish.
This wine, along with the Biserno, delivers Cab Franc tastes at the highest level. I slightly preferred the Biserno blend with the way its old world restraint played out on the finish. With the B Cellars being much younger, it's quite likely to match the Biserno in the coming years. 98+
November 29, 2018 - B Cellars: Black cherry, cassis, red and black raspberry, vanilla bean, baking spices, and a huge bouquet of violets thrown in your face with the force of an ex-wife with a restraining order.
An absolutely stunning wine with so many fun and fascinating flavors bouncing around the palate, but for the fact that the alcohol and floral notes are currently fervently competing for attention with the core fruit. This sample showed a bit of an unresolved Crane Franc, with time certainly needed to get all the instruments in the orchestra tuned-up and its members to start learning the sheet music. The talent is undoubtedly here, but the skill needs to be refined just a touch.
In essence, once the alcohol and heavy floral notes (which imparted a slight bitterness on the finish) integrate more, this wine will surely be a worthy follow-up to the 2015. Hold for three+ years once this gets into bottle. 95-96++ points in its current state. Expect this to leapfrog in points once it hits its stride.
February 8, 2018 - 3-Day Napa Cab Taste-Off: Vice Versa, B Cellars, Memento Mori, Alpha Omega, Purlieu, Janzen, Realm, Myriad, MACDONALD, Maybach, and more...; 2/7/2018-2/9/2018 (Napa): Barrel sample. It's not every day that you find a 100% Cab Franc that is as utterly awesome as this '16 Dr. Crane. Yes, it is a barrel sample. Yes, barrel samples can be deceiving in terms of their abilities to woo you with their intense flavors. But hot damn if I wasn't loving this from the first sip. Powerful purple core fruit, black raspberry, cassis, ripe black cherry, and healthy dollops of spice, wet river rock, and crushed violets, which provided an ethereal lift to the vehemently effusive fruit flavors. The mid-palate concentration was exceptional, with the finish sailing on forever.
97-98+ points, with even more upside once this beast gets bottled and has a chance to truly find its calling. A noble wine that is not just some one-off experiment with an otherwise blended varietal.
February 8, 2018 - Whirlwind Winter Tasting in the Valley; 2/7/2018-2/10/2018 (Napa Valley, CA): Barrel sample. This takes it up a notch from the 2014 that I posted on. Same basic qualities of spring flowers, blueberries and cassis with a lean but highly structured pallet with great length and flavors. The 2016 just seems to be a better, more concentrated and more polished vintage. Be curious to see what the 2015 tastes like. This is a real unique and fun wine. Just be ready for the franc to be really powerful and quite bit different than the cabernet.