Black Bank Hill Cabernet Franc 2022

‘2022 is the year that Black Bank Hill showed us what Black Bank Hill is all about,’ says Emerson. With the arrival of winemaker McLean, the completion of the winery and fruit primarily from the estate vineyard, Emerson pointed to the 2022s as the style of wines the winery will strive for going forward. The estate Cab Franc is a good example of that direction. The wine was wild fermented and aged for 20 months in a mix of used and neutral French oak barrels before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. I love this old-style Cab Franc with its nose of minty/eucalypt, fresh red berries, graphite, wild blueberries, herbs and lifted barrel spices. It’s rich and concentrated on the palate and leaning more toward the darker fruits of anise, blueberries and plums, with that lovely minty accent, fine tannins, solid structure, black tea notes and spice on a lifted, long finish. Can hold this wine through 2033. Score – 93. (Rick VanSickle, winesinniagara.com, March 31, 2025)