Frenchtown Farms Cabernet Merlot "Indigeaux" North Yuba 2019

Frenchtown Farms Cabernet Merlot "Indigeaux" North Yuba 2019

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Press 2 • April/May 2026 Direct Press Selection

Cara and Aaron Mockrish of Frenchtown Farms originally moved to Mendocino to cultivate its main cash crop (cannabis), but their life was altered by a bottle of wine that Gideon Beinstock made at Clos Saron. As they began to seek out more of his wines, they were pulled into a world that they weren't expecting to be drawn into. After making wines with Gideon for a few years, they made their own wines in his cellar, and eventually they moved off the property to pursue their own vision for this isolated terroir. 

Cara and Aaron have an old-school, European vigneron aura. They grow the meat, vegetables and wines that they consume and they walk to the vineyards they farm. They aren’t certified with any organic or biodynamic organizations, because, “you can’t legislate integrity” (a quote they attribute to Virginia farmer Joe Salatin). They describe their home like this: “North Yuba is comprised of the communities of Frenchtown, Oregon House, and Dobbins, located about one and a half hours northeast of Sacramento. It is a wild, untamed land, inhabited by humans and our livestock, as well as deer, rabbits, mountain lions, bears, coyotes, and rattlesnakes and a multitude of other creatures. Farming is not easy here, but the terroir is pervasive in the wine, olive oil, meat, and veggies that our community produces.” It's an unforgiving landscape. Blistering hot days bake the granite slopes and cold, windy nights toughen the grape skins. The wines are tannic, powerful, and incredibly acid-driven. They can live a long, long time. Like Gideon’s wines, the Frenchtown Farms wines are a mouthful of dirt, in the best way; they are terroir wines, and this is incredibly distinctive terroir. 

Indigeaux is a 60/40 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from the Renaissance Vineyard — the vineyard that is part of the Fellowship of Friends cult — and it is both an amazing site and one that is extremely hard to work. Cara and Aaron are permitted by the cult to farm these parcels themselves. Though the cult is approves their presence, "nature does not want you there," according to Hayden Hawkins of Bowler Wines, who distributes Frenchtown and has visited Renaissance. "It's a lot of brambly brush and everything has to be done by hand." The results of the struggle are worth it. The wine is aged in old French oak for five years and is bottled with just 22ppm of sulfur. Deep, rich blackberry and vanillin with lots of secondary, sage notes and savory depth. This is juxtaposed with bright, tangy acidity that lifts the wine and gives it a lively, crunchy snap that leaves one going "wow." Matthew Hawkins and Jonathan Kemp

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