A quick jaunt to Calaveras County the other day paid off with introductions to several mighty-fine wines:

The day began with the fifth-annual International Cabernet Franc Wine Competition inside the sprawling Golf Club at Copper Valley, a gated settlement just outside the old mining camp Copperopolis, itself about 40 miles east of Stockton.

This is where competition director Michael Kelly, long a fan of underappreciated Cabernet Franc, holds forth, overseeing wine events when he isn’t overseeing his golf game.

His competition draws around 80 entries each spring, with classes organized both by price and place of origin – the Pacific Northwest, the American Southwest, the East Coast and so on. California, not surprisingly, provided the largest number of entries with 49. Judges aren’t told specific prices or precise appellations, and all wines are tasted blind.

Remarkably, from that large and diverse field, the grand champion was from the same producer and the same vineyard as last year’s top wine, though the vintage is a year younger, the LXV Wine 2021 Santa Barbara Portico Hills Vineyard Reserve Cabernet Franc ($100). What was there about it that so captivated the five judges who constituted the “professional” panel, and who were unanimous in declaring it the best wine of the day?

I won’t speak for the others, but to this palate it was the wine’s precise sculpting, focus and balance that won over the palate. As the competition showed, Cabernet Franc can be turned out in all sorts of styles, from pale to inky, sinewy to beefy, fruity to herbal, flexible to firm. The LXV leans to the lean end of the scale, its flavors more in the cherry and berry camps than the eucalyptus and mint, with a beckoning perfume, vivid acidity, and striding tannins. It is drinkable now, but with a few more years in the cellar will emerge with a friendlier though no less authoritative mien.

A second panel of wine enthusiasts who tasted the same wines to select “people’s choice” awards chose a different wine for its grand champion, the lushly fruity and animated Brick Barn Estate Winery 2019 Santa Ynez Valley Estate Cabernet Franc, which at $180 per bottle was the most expensive wine in the competition.

If nothing else, both panels concurred that Santa Barbara County just may be the best setting in California for Cabernet Franc. That said, in the class of blended wines based on Cabernet Franc the two highest ranked entries were from nearby San Luis Obispo County, the inky, elegant and eucalyptus-streaming Justin Vineyards & Winery 2020 Paso Robles “Justification” ($65) and the sweetly fruity, balanced, complex and long LXV 2021 Templeton Gap District “The Tempo” ($78), the best-of-class in its category from judges of the “professional” panel.

Livermore, however, also yielded two impressive contenders, the solidly structured Cuda Ridge Wines 2021 Livermore Cabernet Franc ($43) and the ripe and precise Steven Kent Winery 2021 Livermore Valley  L’Autre Cote Cabernet Franc ($48), both winning double-gold medals, meaning all judges concurred that they warranted gold.

The most impressive performance of the day by a Superior California wine was turned in by the mature, readily accessible Ironstone Vineyards 2021 Lodi Cabernet Franc ($14), best-of-class among entries priced up to $30. In another class, the Lava Cap Winery 2020 El Dorado Cabernet Franc ($40) won a double-gold medal.

The competition’s “specialty” category drew just one entry, but it was a joyous bubbly. Not much Cabernet Franc is made as a sparkling wine, but don’t put anything past Herb Quady of the winery Quady North just outside of Jacksonville in southern Oregon. He’s mostly drawn attention for his layered and gregarious wines made with grapes identified traditionally with France’s Rhone Valley, but he’s also keen on Cabernet Franc, and in addition to still takes on the variety makes a sparkling wine, the latest of which is his dry, yeasty and apple-tinged Quady North 2019 Oregon Methode Champenoise Cabernet Franc ($39).

From Copperopolis, I ventured east to Murphys, principally to check out a small-lot wine that two Calaveras County winemakers created in tribute to their mentor, the late Chuck Hovey. “Neither of us would be here if not for Chuck. He changed the whole profile of the town,” says Scott Klann of Newsome Harlow Wines, who with Kate Boyle MacDonald of Boyle MacDonald Wines collaborated on this clever and frank homage to Hovey, who as winemaker at Stevenot Winery and then his own eponymous winery had tutored the two. “He would stop and answer any question you had,” recalls Klann.

Hovey died in 2019, four years after sustaining a severe stroke. To this day, the Calaveras County wine community reflects fondly on the graciousness, generosity, humility and humor he brought to Murphys, as well as on his talents as a particular yet adventurous winemaker. He was an early adapter of Tempranillo in the Sierra Foothills, and a stubborn – and successful – proponent of Chardonnay in the region, generally seen as too hot and dry for the grape. His wines were models of transparency, balance and finesse.

That’s pretty much the style of the wine that Klann and MacDonald created in tribute to Hovey, the Boyle MacDonald Newsome Harlow 2018 California

Scott Klann with a bottle of “Bequest.”

“Bequest” ($50). A blend of 50 percent Cabernet Sauvignon from a MacDonald family vineyard in Napa Valley’s Atlas Peak district and 50 percent Malbec from the Mountain Ranch area of Calaveras County, the wine is streamlined and propulsive, with bright red fruit, retreating tannins and zesty acidity.

Klann sees it as a balanced combination of his typically loose and brash style and MacDonald’s more restrained and elegant style. The name “Bequest” was chosen to recognize Hovey’s legacy in Calaveras County. The bottle’s front label features a digitized sketch of Chuck Hovey by Murphys artist Laura Marion, based on a photo taken some 40 years ago by Hovey’s former wife Mary Ann Draeger.

MacDonald and Klann began to release the wine last fall, initially only by the case, but individual bottles now can be purchased. Around 20 of the original 80 cases remain. For more information about the wine and about a formal release party later this month, visit the Bequest website.

To find copies of my book “The Signature Wines of Superior California: 50 Wines that Define the Sierra Foothills, the Delta, Yolo and Lodi,” please visit my website SignatureWines.us.