Extended family: Fiesta with the Franks
Sep. 16—Hmmm. What to go with that steaming bowl of New Mexican red chile? A chewy zinfindel perhaps? Or something lighter for contrast, like a crisp sparkling wine with tasting notes of apple and lemon, or maybe something closer to the flavor of bread used for dipping? As a longtime dunker of brioche in chile, I can attest to the pairing of flavors (that slightly sweet, nutty taste the brioche brings to the chile's smokey tang), and the idea of something creamy to counter the heat sounds ideal.
The Frank Family Vineyards in California's Napa Valley has just such a sparkling wine: their 2015 Blanc de Blancs, which boasts notes of hazelnut and brioche and is made entirely from chardonnay grapes.
"We've been participating in Santa Fe Wine and Chile for the last four years," says co-owner Leslie Frank, whose winery was named Winery of the Year for the 2022 Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta (Wednesday, Sept. 21, through Sunday, Sept.25). "When we hired our Frank Family regional representative, they started making frequent trips to Santa Fe and getting involved in the market there. Santa Fe has such an appreciation for food and good wine."
Frank Family Vineyards is participating in numerous events in the 28-event fiesta, including the Reserve Wine Tasting & Silent Auction ($125-$175) at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 22, at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center (201 W. Marcy St.); also on Thursday, a sold-out dinner with 2022 James Beard Award-winning Chef Fernando Olea at Sazón (221 Shelby St.); and the Grand Tasting ($185) at noon on Sept. 24 at Magers Field at Fort Marcy Park (490 Bishops Lodge Road), which features wines from 90 wineries and bites from more than 60 Santa Fe restaurants. Approximately 3,500 people attended in 2021, and the Fiesta is expecting about 4,000 this year.
Regional distributors are invited to sit on the committee that determines Winery of the Year, says fiesta Executive Director Mary Hallahan. The wine committee, composed of 10 members of the Fiesta's board and the invited distributors, consider criteria such as how well established a winery is, and Frank Family goes back three decades, making it commensurate with Santa Fe Wine & Chile's own lifespan (it's in its 31st year). To further meet the criteria, Frank Family was required to be involved in past Fiestas and submit a presentation.
"Distributors have an opportunity to nominate somebody in their portfolio," Hallahan says. "It's quite a vetting process. It starts January or February. But it also comes down to what our audience loves, and we have a great wine-drinking community here. The wineries from Napa Valley are some of our favorites."
Rich and Leslie Frank will be giving a 10:30 a.m. wine seminar on Friday, Sept. 23, also at the convention center, titled "Great Wine Happens Every Day," along with their sales and hospitality director, Liam Gearity.
"We'll be showing an expression of chardonnay three ways and an expression of cabernet sauvignon three ways, basically taking it from a chardonnay and cabernet of Napa Valley down to an AVA-specific chardonnay and cabernet, then a vineyard specific cabernet and chardonnay," Leslie Frank says.
An American Viticultural Area, or AVA, designation on wine labels indicates a grape-growing region with specific geographic or climatic features that distinguish it from the surrounding regions, similar to the French appellation d'origine contrôlée, or AOC designation.
Napa is a region where chardonnay and cabs do great, and they're two of Frank Family's signature wines.
"In Napa, they say cab is king and chardonnay is queen," Frank says.
Frank Family Vineyards got its start in 1992 while Rich Frank was president of Walt Disney Studios and living in Los Angeles. He bought a house in Rutherford, California, in Napa County as a getaway. The property, which is 107 acres, had about 30 acres of planted vineyards.
"He really bought it for the view and to be in this amazing valley, which he would escape to on weekends when he could get out of Hollywood and the hustle and bustle of that world," Leslie Frank says. "He realized that he had some really good grapes on his property because a number of people were interested in purchasing the grapes. I think, at the time, the grapes were going into the Anthology wines by Conn Creek. When that contract ended, he thought, 'Maybe I should make some wine for myself. Maybe it would be fun to make a couple of hundred cases of wine for friends and family at the holidays."
So with a change of scenery and an idea that started on a whim came a new career. And Rich began adding more property.
"Then the winery in Calistoga came available: a production facility and an old stone building that's on the National Register of Historical Places and is the third oldest winery building in Napa that we know of. He started Frank Family Vineyards, at the time, with his friend Koerner Rombauer."
Rombauer's own Napa winery, Rombauer Vineyards, was last year's Winery of the Year at the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta.
"As time went on, there was a lot of brand confusion because they called it Frank-Rombauer," she says. "People were saying to Rich, 'Oh, you're Rich Rombauer, you're Koerner's brother.'"
But the confusion in the marketplace also resulted from the fact that Rombauer had its own brand, separate from Frank's. So, Frank and Rombauer agreed to a friendly parting of the ways.
"Rich and Koerner remained the best of friends until Koerner's passing a few years ago."
The business started as a passion project ("That's always how it starts, right?"), with cabernet leading the way as an early product. Rich Frank added chardonnay after acquiring an additional 80 acres of vineyards in Carneros, California.
"We hired winemaker Todd Graff, who's been with us for 20 years," Leslie says. "This is his 20th harvest. Todd really created the profile of Frank Family Chardonnay. He's just been able to make this beautiful, elegant wine that's done really well in the marketplace."
Graff, who was voted Best Local Winemaker in Napa Valley in Life Magazine's 2022 Reader's Choice Awards, has extensive experience in wineries in Europe and the United States and was winemaker at Sonoma Creek before joining the Frank Family.
"He makes sparkling wine in the méthode champenoise. He makes chardonnay, pinot noir, zinfandel, a variety of cabernets, port, petit sirah — we have quite the portfolio — and he does it every year with balance and consistency. And he's a great guy on top of that."
Leslie Frank's involvement with the business came around 2006, when she was living in Los Angeles as an ABC news anchor and reporter. That was the year she met her future husband.
"We started spending weekends up in Napa," she says. "A few years later, we got married. We wanted to be in Napa most of the time. I cut back what I was doing at ABC to three days a week. When my contract came up, and they wanted me to renew, I said to Rich, 'What do you think I should do?' He said, 'I think it's time that we moved to Napa full time.'"
The house in Rutherford became a permanent home, and they dove into the winery 100 percent.
"I was able to apply many of the skills I developed in journalism and apply that to what we do at Frank Family. I took over the marketing and branding, which came naturally to me."
Each day, as a journalist, she was telling other peoples' stories. "Now," she says, "I'm telling our story."
details
—Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta
—Wednesday, Sept. 21, through Sunday, Sept. 25
—Various venues
—Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, 217 East Marcy St.
—Tickets for all events and winery dinners are per event and can be purchased at santafewineandchile.org/fiesta-schedule; 505-438-8060; santafewineandchile.org
