While Napa Valley is in the midst of another busy summer tourist season, many wine enthusiasts are still asking about the quality of the 2017 vintage following the destructive Northern California wildfires and the possible effects of smoke taint. Recently, Rich and Leslie Frank announced publicly that Frank Family Vineyards did not bottle any wine made from grapes harvested after the Atlas and Tubbs fires which started on October 8, 2017.
“We have worked for 25 years to build our brand, and we are not willing to put our reputation, or that of any of our distributors and retail partners at risk with suspect bottles. Rest assured, not a single grape picked after the fires has gone into a single Frank Family bottle,” says Leslie Frank.
“We had the chance to connect with collectors from all over the world at the recent Auction Napa Valley. We discovered in doing so that there continues to be a concern about the 2017 vintage with our clientele, which is why we are making this announcement. I know many other wineries have made the same difficult decision as we have,” adds Rich Frank.
Thousands of gallons of potentially compromised wine, about half of our 2017 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon production, was sold off in bulk.
“2017 was an incredible growing season and harvest, up until the fires started. Fortunately, we had already picked our estate vineyards, so our reserve wines were not affected at all. The fruit that had already been picked is some of the best of the decade. We were able to bottle approximately 17,000 cases of the 2017 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from fruit picked before October 8th,” says winemaker and general manager, Todd Graff.
In addition, Graff says Mother Nature blessed Napa Valley with an abundant and stellar crop in 2018 that will guarantee there is no shortage of Cabernet Sauvignon, or gap in distribution of Frank Family wine. Critics are already hailing the 2018 vintage as outstanding.
