Welcome, 2024.

This is the official start of a new era for LJC Wine Co., the parent company of Leah Jørgensen Cellars. What marks this era is the restoration of Cabernet Franc as my primary focus, without distraction.

While spinning the bottles of my many expressions of Loire-inspired Northwest grown and produced varietals over the years – it’s kind of like watching a mesmerizing three hour concert of stunning wardrobe changes of none other than the sparkly, ebullient Taylor Swift.

In this case, the fan favorite is Cabernet Franc. It’s a real love story.

It was always my truest mission and wildest dream for the brand to make world-class Cabernet Franc that stands up next to the greatest bottles ever produced – to make Cabernet Franc that belongs in that classification. To position my work in this way has been quite delicate.

Like Ms. Swift, I dropped some Easter eggs starting at the end of 2022 to point to this new direction, to this new era.

My husband and lover Asa Jean and I followed up a 2022 Cab Franc Day Masterclass on Cabernet Franc, Collectible Wines and Investing in Wine with our 2023 Cab Franc Day vertical tasting of 2016 Cabernet Franc Icons from our favorite regions – Tuscany, Loire Valley and Southern Oregon! We hosted an Instagram Live session tasting Marchesi Antinori’s 2016 Guado Al Tasso “Matarocchio Bolgheri”, Clos Rougeard’s 2016 “Le Clos”, Saumur-Champigny and my 2016 “Grand Reserve”, Rogue Valley.

Brash? Even audacious for a relatively unknown woman winemaker in an under-appreciated wine region to accolade herself in this way. Let’s face it. I don’t own any vineyards. I don’t own a physical winery. And I don’t have Cabernet Franc pedigree. I’m the anti-hero. And a lot of people don’t like Taylor Swift for these kinds of reasons, too, to the point of unfair criticism and even misogyny. She took back control over her songs that she wrote by re-recording them, she planned and executed a hugely successful tour and made cinematic history with her ground-breaking concert movie. She plays the guitar, the piano, she has a nice voice with real range. And yet… She’s not talented. She’s blonde. She’s annoying. Make her go away. She’s overrated.

No, I’m certainly not the Taylor Swift of wine. At best I’m the Taylor Swift of Cabernet Franc. But, yes, I have also attracted some trolls and eye rolls for including my wine alongside these two other “much more deserving” Cabernet Franc icons – mainly because I don’t have the right tradition, pedigree, vineyard ownership, sex chromosome, etc.

What kind of winemaker publicly judges her own wine next to two real icons? Me. I’m the problem. It’s me…

Put feelings aside on whether or not I should have included my wine alongside two long-standing reputable Cabernet Franc icons, the point is that the Southern Oregon expression of Cabernet Franc in this particular tasting not only held up to these globally long-revered icons, but it showed really, really well alongside them. The Cabernet Franc of Southern Oregon is very slowly garnering a kind of folklore of its own. It’s got style. And there’s a blank space that I mean to fill.

View the IG Live here.

Here’s the deal. I believe the landscape of Southern Oregon, particularly a fan-like territory in the Rogue Valley, where a 250 million year old subduction raged off the Pacific coast, propelling ocean bottom material to stretch out as far as the Cascade Range, is the home to one of the most important, fertile, geologically prime sites for growing world class Cabernet Franc.

This subduction left deposits of high-grade limestone and ancient ocean bottom material – like blue schist rock, sandstone, various clays, and fossil imprints and fossil shells – particularly calciferous mollusk shells – depicting terroir that closely resembles the landscape and soils of some of the Loire Valley’s iconic terroir, including the sedimentary basins between Angers and Saumur; the subsoil series made up of tuffeau limestone, sand and siliceous clay, and terraces bordering the Loire and the Vienne comprised of sand and pebbles, smoothed to roundness by the action of the water and deposited there over the years that classifies Saumurois and Touraine; and the subsoil of mainly slate, sandstone and carboniferous schists as well as volcanic rock found in Anjou.

While the Willamette Valley is not Burgundy, it is also true that the Rogue Valley is not the Loire. But we can make some really compelling comparisons.

In my humble opinion, because this incredible discovery of ancient marine deposits, particularly in parts of the Rogue Valley, pre-dates the similar world-famous Loire Valley terroir landscape by over 150 million years, these barely-known sites, like Crater View Ranch where I source my most coveted grapes, should one day be classed with a UNESCO World Heritage site distinction. But let’s face it. It’s Oregon.

These soil series, this terroir and some of these vineyards, like Crater View Ranch, are worthy of world- renown and distinction. I have been trying my best to tell this story, to show the incredible similarities – not to make carbon copy Cabernet Franc from the Old World sensibilities – but to validate this region that is continuously overlooked. Not one major wine magazine has published a story about the 250 million year subduction that put ancient ocean bottom material in the Rogue Valley. Not one interview with renowned state geologist Scott Burns about this geological episode and its significance.

Many wine growing regions, particularly in California, will hark their region as the best place to grow Cabernet Franc. That’s fine. California has been doing that since the first vines were planted. In fact, California planted Cabernet Franc as early as the 1860s but were quite limited and inconsistent until the early 2000s, so, they’ve had much more time to develop the varietal and its place in the market. I’m not mad at California. But, I am too small, too overlooked, myself, to ever successfully tell this story the way it needs to be told. It’s a real struggle and I’m frustrated. I’m failing to secure these sites and the production of Southern Oregon Cabernet Franc as world class. Perhaps I’m not the right person to do this.

Perhaps if I had a larger bank account, more influence or renown, more support within my state and – dare I say it – to echo Ms. Swift – if I were a man…

I’m taking a break from trying to proselytize shit. Gonna shake it off, shake it off…

Instead, I’m just focusing on getting my Cabernet Franc wines out to the Cabernet Francophiles of the world. I’m no longer producing the other varietals in my earlier winemaking line up, including Gamay Noir, Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s just Cabernet Franc from here on out. Me and karma vibe like that.

I still have plenty of Gamay Noir and Malbec to sell and I’m wrapping up the bottle-aged, collectible 2019 Sauvignon Blanc (we had an epic tasting of the 2016 and 2017 vintages and sold out the remains of those Library Wines very quickly!). Dropping an Easter egg again…

I’m restructuring some things as part of this Restoration Era.

In addition to my Full Case and Half Case wine subscriptions, I’m now offering a Cabernet Franc of the Month subscription (just one bottle of one of my Cabernet Franc wines from current, library and future releases). Interested in signing up? You can find the registration here online.

I will be offering a Wine of the Week Deal on Sunday nights via my Instagram/Facebook accounts and “Group Deals” (stay tuned for this one – it’s going to be fun!). Please follow/like my accounts in these socials to stay connected. You can find me at @leahjorgensencellars on both IG/FB.

There are some other things in the works including a new label. And some inevitable changes that will get announced when the time is right.

Foreshadowing…

As a side note, the Restoration Period in English history was marked by a significant period in art, culture and science an age of cultural revolution. In fact, the Restoration Period was a Golden Age for literature, mostly known for its poetry. I like the potentials here! The inspiration, imagination and vision that can be applied to the slow and steady restructuring of my business, including an effort to evolve into a regenerative business and an effort to work smarter not harder, to follow my bliss and to get more grounded in what it is I’m here to do in this lifetime.

There’s a lot of work to do here, and I am but one woman. Some things will have to naturally evolve and change. I cannot share everything in the works at this time, but know this Restoration Era has long-planned intention and I hope will continue to evolve in the right direction.

More foreshadowing…

Now is the time to be fearless. Okay, I’m done with the Taylor Swift references. But she is an inspiration – I missed her concert but watched the Eras Tour movie over the holidays and I was blown away. I was never a swifty. But, Taylor, look what you made me do!

I’m excited about this new era for my business. And I’m excited to share more world class Southern Oregon Cabernet Franc with all of you! Thank you for visiting, for the support and patronage. It means the world to me.