Description
Batič, Cabernet Franc
In 1592, monks of the Batič estate began crafting sacramental wines for Mass, and over four centuries later, the family still carries their winemaking torch with a transcendent, one-with-nature mindset. Located in Slovenia’s renowned Vipava Valley, just a handful of miles from the border of Italy, Batič has been continuously run for 430 years and current proprietor Miha Batič believes to his core that it shouldn’t be squandered. To him, anything that survives four centuries unscathed deserves to be treated as sacred—and that’s exactly how he carries out his philosophies.
Miha’s 19 hectares are spread throughout three small villages and each one is naturally farmed to the highest degree. While they do hold both organic and biodynamic certifications, the Batič family goes much deeper, crossing into another dimension and downright flirting with the occult: Their vines wake up to the bright sound of a trumpet and farming occurs with the elementals of fire and air via a Physics-based Cropping System invented by them. Essentially, this extraterrestrial-looking apparatus mimics the warm breeze of nature by blowing 75-degree heat on the vines which helps prevent diseases and deter pests.
Come harvest, their Cabernet Franc grapes are carefully hand-harvested, sometimes weeks apart, and what happens next is the signature of Batič: nothing. Like the monks that were crafting wine in this very spot 430 years ago, they allow a long, zero-additive, indigenous fermentation in open-top wood containers. Following, the wine is transferred into Slovenian (and some Slavonian) oak barrels and allowed to mature for nearly two years, completely undisturbed. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered with little-to-no sulfur additions. All of this, of course, is monitored and carried out in concurrence with the lunar cycle.
Today’s 2018 Cabernet Franc has morphed into a texturally deep and haunting red swirling with cosmic energy. That’s the beauty of a biodynamic, purely crafted, long-aged Cabernet! What’s immediately apparent with today’s 2018 is its Cabernet Franc typicity: This is an exceptional wine with the aromatic savor and lift of cult Loire Valley classics and the broad power of blue-chip Saint-Émilion. It’s all about lush and elegant layers of currant, black cherry, licorice, tobacco, sweet herbs, crushed rock, black raspberry, damp violets, and green peppercorn. I recommend a 30-minute decant and a slow drinking experience that’s stretched out over two days. Few Cabernets in the world, at this price, showcase this amount of energy, finesse, and restrained power; the entire package here is downright incredible. Enjoy now and over the next decade—although I won’t be surprised if you find a dust-caked bottle in the back of your cellar is drinking superbly 20 years from now. Cheers!
