I miss being in the Loire Valley. I want to return to Chinon soon. I miss the air, the food, the castles, the gardens and their plants and flowers. I also miss treading upon ground once inhabited by Jeanne d’Arc and Leonardo.

And the wine there. I share a love of Cabernet Franc with Rabelais, and with Cardinal Richelieu, who had it planted it at Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil. Lively and full of red fruit — cherry and raspberry — when young, and, in the best examples, so complex and sophisticated when older.

She had visions.

I’ve poured many glasses of Breton, as inhabitants of the Loire call Cabernet Franc. Abbott Breton, a monk at Bourgueil Abbey, or Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Bourgueil-en-Vallée in French, was partial to the grape and planted it on the grounds of the monastery. His care for the vines impressed the area’s inhabitants, and they wanted some of their own. The rest is delicious history.

I recently tasted a Cabernet Franc from Cakebread Cellars (2019 vintage), and a certain hilltop castle came to mind. It’s in Chinon, and one fair spring day three companions and I dined well on that hilltop among the ruins of the castle. There was cheese, perhaps Brie and Mimolette, a loaf of bread, some butter and sausage. And with the food, a bottle of Cabernet Franc.

Rabelais would have enjoyed this wine.

Cakebread’s wine is 76 percent Cab Franc, 19 percent Merlot, and 5 percent Syrah. (You can find it at your favorite merchant, or on the Cakebread site, where it is sold for $75.) It’s a lovely wine, aged 17 months in 60 percent new French oak and 40 percent neutral oak. You’ll find the typical violet notes on the aroma, something that everyone should experience and appreciate. I drank this with pork and beef meatballs … know that Cabernet Franc’s acidity makes it a suitable pairing with many foods, never a bad thing.

Drink this now, or put it aside for a few years in a cool place.

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