Grape Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon

Colour:

Red

This is one of the six permitted Bordeaux red grape varieties (together with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Carmenere and Malbec) ie: it is used in the blend for many Bordeaux reds.

Cabernet Sauvignon produces small grapes with thick darkly coloured skins, which give a good tannin level and results in wines with a good intense deep purple colour and therefore good structure. This is an excellent grape for producing wines that will age well.

Because Cabernet Sauvignon needs well-drained soil and good sunshine it has enjoyed great success in the warm-climate new world countries.

Stony soil promotes good drainage and that conjoined with the heat retention aspect (soaking up the suns heat in the day and gradually releasing it during the cold of the night) means the best Cabernet Sauvignon plots often consist of soil run through with stones, this is the case of the top Medoc Chateaux - the area Graves is famous for this, and indeed the word “Graves” actually means stones, or pebbles in French. Indeed in some vineyards across the world, stones are incorporated actively into the land to render it Cabernet Sauvignon-friendly.

The classic characteristics of wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon are: deep purple in colour (when young), turning to burnished with age (a mature Cabernet Sauvignon based claret will have brick nuances around the rim) There even exist examples of Chateau Mouton Rothschild wines (made with a high level of Cabernet Sauvignon) from the 18th century which are now so mature that they are rosé in colour (the ageing process allows the colour from Cabernet Sauvignon to drop to the bottom of the bottle in the form of crystals of sediment). This is why mature Cab-Sauv dominated Médoc wines need to be decanted to separate the wine from its sediment.

The aromatic characteristics of Cabernet Sauvignon are distinct - blackcurrant fruit (’cassis’ in French), mingling with mint and eucalyptus (traits particularly found in Australia and California). If all the conditions for producing quality Cabernet Sauvignon are met, in the hands of a diligent winemaker, this grape will produce a well-structured, deeply coloured wine with a high level of fruit that balances well with the robust structure, and which will age well and develop wonderful secondary aromas and flavours in the bottle with time.

A large number of Cabernet Sauvignons are oak-matured, which lends certain vanilla and toasty notes to the wine. The calibre and grain of the oak influences the flavour of the wine: fine-grained new French oak bequeaths exotic aromas of cedarwood, cinnamon and pencil shavings. After a period of time, the oak melds with the wine and secondary aromas of tobacco and old wood.

Cabernet Sauvignon is rarely 100% of a wine in France. Its main partner in Bordeaux is the earlier-ripening Merlot which provides warmth and middle-palate. In Gascony it is employed to ameliorate abd to add fruit and aromatic quality to the rustic indigenous grapes, a good example of this is the Madiran Haute Tradition from Domaine Berthoumieu (Didier Barré) which is a blend of Tannat, Cabernet Sauvignon .Cabernet Wine producers in Gascony use Cabernet and Pinenc (Fer Servadou), a pugnacious vin de terroir - a rustic tangle of humus and farmyard aromas, flavours of dark cherries, figs and pepper. See also the range of Fronton wines from Chateau le Roc (famille Ribes) - the Cotes du Frontonnais Classique (65% Negrette, 25% Syrah with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon) is medium-bodied with notes of red berries, cherry, a hint of violet and a touch of spice, a wonderful scent of violets, peonies and a suggestion of marzipan. Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the many red grapes used to produce the red wine from the excellent Languedoc vineyard Mas de Daumas Gassac. For a great example of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Languedoc, try the Domaine Mordoc Cabernet Sauvignon from Stephane Vedeau and Claude Serra - this wine has a touch of clove-edged bitterness and Languedoc herbs.

For Cabernet Sauvignon in a Bordeaux blend, see the Medoc Cru Bourgeois, Chateau du Moulin made from 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot and 28% Merlot, which has a classy nose of soft Autumn fruits, damsons and blackcurrants with a hint of sweet spice, this wine is dry and full-bodied with firm tannic structure and good weight, ripe fruit with hints of cassis and a lingering finish gives the wine character and definition.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape that has allowed the phenomenon of “super Tuscans” to come into being - it all started when an Italian wine producer brought back some Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon root stocks, and planted them in his vineyards in Tuscany where the soil and climate are favourable to this grape, and he produced a wine called “Sassicaia” which instantly hit the headlines as a contender together with top Bordeaux Chateaux as one of the top red wines of the world, other Tuscan producers followed suit and planted Cabernet Sauvignon and went on to produce some powerful, flavoursome and aromatic reds, hence the birth of the “super Tuscan type of wine, the elevated prices that these wines fetched contributed to the name Super Tuscan. Other regions in Italy have been producing excellent Cabernet Sauvignons for many years, see the Vino Rosso Cabernet Sauvignon from Livio and Giorgio Marega (Floriano del Collio, Friuli), this wine is delightfully fresh and fragrant with the trademark Friuli herbaceous notes of peppermint and menthol backed by some lovely medicinal clove-tinctured wild berry fruit. See also the excellent Giusto di Notri from Tua Rita (Suvereto, Tuscany) which is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Franc - deep purple in colour with very intense aromas; abundant black fruit and a touch of earthiness, cocooned in cocoa. Full - bodied, with rich, sweet tannins that hint at a wine with ageing potential.

South America has had great success with Cabernet Sauvignon - a good varietal example is the Cabernet Sauvignon from Viu Manent (Colchagua, Chile) - this wine expresses the variety articulately - deep ruby red in colour, an opulent nose of cassis and red berry fruit; in the mouth complex notes of boysenberry, leather and mocha marry perfectly with lashings of spice and a hint of sweet vanilla. Firm, yet unagressive tannins lead to a long finish.

Australia has adopted a blend with Cabernet Sauvignon which has brought it huge commercial success: Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz - where the berry fruit of the Cabernet Sauvignon nicely offsets the cocoa/spice notes of the Shiraz.