Whenever I think sustainably produced, well-made wines that offer tremendous value, Domaine Bousquet is top of mind for me!

Piggybacking on Cab Franc Day, which is celebrated annually on December 4th, the theme for this month’s Wine Pairing Weekend (#WinePW) group of food and wine bloggers is “Cabernet Franc Around The World“. We’re sharing foods that pair well with Cab Franc.

Please join us on Saturday, December 12^th at 8am PST on Twitter. Just follow the #WinePW hashtag. We’ll be discussing some incredible Cab Franc pairings!

Disclosure: This wine was provided to me as a media sample. I received no compensation for this post, and all opinions presented are my own.

2018 Domaine Bousquet Gaia Cabernet Franc

The organically farmed fruit for this wine is sourced from Bousquet’s estate vineyard situated in the western foothills of Argentina’s Andes Mountains at 4000 ft. altitude, within the Alto Gualtallary of the Tupungato GI (Geographical Indication).

It’s an opaque violet color with inviting black cherry, red currant, peppercorn and violet aromas. On the palate it’s medium-full bodied with juicy acidity, and textured with grippy tannins. It shows black cherry, red currant, strawberry leather, and savory spice flavors with a hints of cacao and an appealing stoney minerality and a persistent finish. 100% Cabernet Franc. 15.4% abv| SRP – $30. This is an outstanding, and food friendly wine that is a great example of an Argentinean Cabernet Franc grown at high altitude. Whenever I think sustainably produced, well-made wines that offer tremendous value, Domaine Bousquet is top of mind for me!

I paired this wine with a recipe posted by Lauren of The Swirling Dervish, who paired it with Cab Franc for #CabFrancDay.

I’m way late to the sheet pan meal party, but I’ve trying a few lately, and her version of the recipe looked great, so I decided to give it a try. I modified it a bit to utilize the ingredients I had on hand at the time (that’s the beauty of sheet pan meals isn’t it? They’re so flexible!)

The meal turned out great (it’s definitely going into my sheet pan rotation). I especially appreciated the sweetness of the roasted shallot, and chicken apple sausage juxtaposed against the savory elements of the dish like the mustards and fresh arugula. It was a great pairing with the Domaine Bousquet Gaia Cabernet Franc!

Here’s my version of the recipe:

Sausage and Potato Pan Roast (adapted from Food and Wine)

• 2 large red potatoes, cut into large chunks
• 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into large chunks (add sweet potatoes if you like!)
• 1 large Russet potato, cut into large chunks
• 4 shallots, UNPEELED and halved length-wise
• 1/2 Red onion cut into chunks
• 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup course-grained mustard
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lb Chicken Apple Sausage
• 1/2 lb Italian sausage (sweet or spicy, up to you) cut into 2” pieces
• 8 oz. arugula
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 425.  Toss potatoes and shallots with 1/3 cup olive oil; season with salt and pepper.
Spread out on rimmed baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes until lightly browned.
Toss sausage with the mustards and remaining oil and add to baking sheet.
Roast 25 minutes more.
Sprinkle arugula over a platter, with olive oil and lemon juice.  Spoon sausage and potatoes on top.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve.

About Domaine Bousquet

During a vacation to Argentina in 1990, third-generation  French winemaker Jean Bousquet (Boo-SKAY) fell in love with the  Gualtallary Valley, a scenic, remote, arid (dessert really) terrain high in the Tupungato district of the Uco Valley in Argentina’s Mendoza region, close to the border with Chile.   With altitudes ranging up to 5,249 feet, Gualtallary occupies the highest extremes of Mendoza’s viticultural limits.

Bousquet was so convinced of the potential of the region, he began divesting himself, bit by bit, of virtually everything he owned, including the family winery and vineyards in Pennautier, near Carcassonne in Southwest France.

In 1997 Bousquet purchased about a 1,000 acres of under developed land:  tracts of semi-desert, nothing planted, no water above ground, no electricity and a single dirt track by way of access.  Locals dismissed the area as too cold for growing grapes. Bousquet, on the other hand, reckoned he’d found the perfect blend between his French homeland (high acidity, cool climate) and the New World (sunny, with a potential for relatively fruit-forward wines).

Whenever,  the need arose, Bousquet would sell off portions of his initial 988 acres, retaining just 173 acres by the time he released his first vintage in 2005. Bottle by bottle, money was raised to buy a vat or equipment. Today, Domaine Bousquet is housed in a striking modern winery, complete with a hospitality area and restaurant.

Since 2011 Bousquet’s, daughter economist Anne Bousquet, and her husband Labid Al Ameri, a successful trader with Fidelity in Boston have taken over the day to day operations of the winery

Certified organic fruit, high-altitude terroir and a French-Argentine profile have translated into a recipe for success for the Bousquet family in a relatively short period of time. Their naturally elegant, environmentally friendly wines are now found in 50 countries around the globe, and Domaine Bousquet is Argentina’s leading name in exports of wine made from organically grown grapes. But there is another simple reason for their success: “We just want to make the finest wines possible and sell them at prices people can afford,” explains co-owner Anne Bousquet.

Thank you to Kate Morgan-Corcoran and Jane Kettlewell of Creative Palate Communication for arranging the shipment of the sample and Domaine Bousquet for the wine.

Want more food pairing ideas for food friendly Cab Franc? Be sure to check out

• Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Honey-Lemon-Sesame Drizzled Plancha’d Veggies + Garzón 2018 Reserva Cabernet Franc
• A Day in the Life on the Farm : Hungarian Short Ribs Paired with Dracaena Cab Franc
• The Quirky Cork: Francly Turkish! Turkish Cab Franc & Lamb Chops
• Grape Experiences: “Crush On Cabernet Franc!”
• Crushed Grape Chronicles: “Cab Franc – Sailing the Loire with a Pirate Princess”
• Exploring the Wine Glass: Championing for Cabernet Franc; The True Underdog
• Cooking Chat: Easy Bibimbap Recipe with Cab Franc Wine Pairing
• The Swirling Dervish: Biodynamic Bourgueil from Laurent Herlin for #WinePW
• My Full Wine Glass: “Old World vs New World Cab Franc: Game On!”
• Always Ravenous: “Cabernet Franc Paired with Flavors of Persian Cuisine”
• Enofylz:“Domaine Bousquet Gaia Cabernet Franc Paired with Sausage and Potato Pan Roast”
• Wine Predator: Cab Franc Thrives in California: Examples from Santa Ynez, Sonoma, El Dorado, Paso Robles #WinePW and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil’s Amirault “Le Vau Renou” 2016 Cabernet Franc
• Avvinare: Cab franc in Friuli Venezia Giulia
• Somm’s Table: “Old World/New World Cab Franc Explorations”

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