2006 Buttonwood Farm Santa Ynez Cabernet Franc Duo

Tastes like: Black cherry, raspberry, coffee
Pairs with: Pork roast, soft cheeses
Good for: Weekday dining
Drink this: Now
Alcohol: 14.8%

2 x 2006 Buttonwood Farm Santa Ynez Cabernet Franc

Buttonwood Farm is a tiny, family-run operation in the dead center of the Santa Ynez Valley that cares more about making wines in a manner and style in line with its organi-local philosophy than it does about making attention grabbing, flashy, jammy, highly stylized, score-centric dribble. So, unless you are lucky enough to stumble into their tasting room – which is out at the winery, mind you, not conveniently in town – you may never have the opportunity to taste American wines as real as this.

Unless, of course, you are a member of Lot18.

I know what you're saying. "First of all, I don't drink Cabernet Franc; I drink Cabernet Sauvignon. And second, I saw Sideways. Santa Ynez is where they grow Pinot Noir."

Here's what I'm saying. Yes, you do like Cabernet Franc. You just don't know it yet. And Santa Ynez grows a lot more than just Pinot Noir. You need to buy more of the wines I'm hunting down.

I had always had the name Buttonwood Farm in the back of my head somewhere, but it wasn't until winemaker Karen Steinwachs called me over a year ago and convinced me to schlep out to the winery for a visit that I actually paid attention. She poured me a 10-year-old Merlot – yes, from Santa Ynez – that absolutely floored me.

I'm not going to pitch this winery based on what someone else has said about it. It isn't a critical darling on everyone's top 100 list. My take is that this is real, American country wine, and as far as I know, wine like this never finds its way to retail shelves outside of wine country.

Tasting Note
When I tell you I love this wine, I mean I love this wine. Astonishingly fresh black cherry, raspberry, coffee and rose petals dominate the nose, accented with baking spice, a hint of earth and a breath of cooling camphor. The palate is at once vibrant and mellow. This is what I would call "country wine" at its finest, and in our brave new world where "internationally styled wines" dominate the market, the balance of purity and rusticity that this displays is rarer than a 99-point score, and, frankly, to me far more compelling. I could be standing in the middle of Provence drinking the produce of an ages-old estate, except that they don't grow Cabernet Franc in Provence, and this is the American countryside. Open your Chez Panisse cookbook and enjoy.

—Eric Lawrence Brown

Eric Lawrence Brown has 10 years of wine experience, with five years as Sales Manager at renowned Los Angeles retailer, Wally’s Wine & Spirits. Since relocating from the East Coast eight years ago, this formerly devout Europhile was converted into an avowed proponent of the region as one of the world’s finest – thanks to frequent tasting expeditions to California’s Central Coast, not to mention proselytizing by local wine gurus. Eric holds certifications from the Court of Master Sommeliers, as well as the Society of Wine Educators.