2018 Watkins Family Winery Cabernet Franc Bugay Vineyard Sonoma County

“Absolutely fabulous. The word is ‘balance’… My dinner grouping could not believe it was not $100/bottle.”

That member review sums up why every single wine we’ve offered from Randall Watkins has been a straightaway sell-out, and we’re thrilled to have the second-ever bottling of his Watkins Family Winery Cabernet Franc Bugay Vineyard. 

Randall only makes a varietal Cabernet Franc from his beloved Bugay Vineyard in exceptional years—when what he tastes out of the barrel is so good that the wine demands to stand on its own. This 2018, grown in one of the most flawless seasons Sonoma County has ever seen, is drinking beautifully right now. 

It comes from the Bugay Vineyard, same as the Cabernet Sauvignons that dazzle our members. The site sits some 1,400 feet up on a Mayacamas ridge, and Watkins sources from its rockiest plot, which sits above the frosts and fog, protected from damaging conditions and perfectly situated to absorb sunlight. Caressed and cooled by marine air, the grapes mature slowly and evenly, maintaining acidity as they achieve optimal sugar and phenolic ripeness.

“Bugay is halfway between Loire and Napa,” Randall says about the balance of herbal complexity and ripeness that his Cabernet Franc strikes. “Bugay is in the Mayacamas, but closer west to the Pacific Ocean, which gives freshness, the earthiness, the savoriness that I really love in Cabernet Franc. It’s got finesse and elegance.”

This is a stunner from one of our members’ favorite winemakers, and it shows off his skills in a whole new way. An unmissable bottle!

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.20%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2030
• % Cabernet Franc
• Serving temperature – 58°
• Cork