Wine 101: Cabernet Sauvignon
An image of grape vines in Napa Valley, California.
Often associated with California’s Napa Valley and only thought of as the single-varietal wine, cabernet sauvignon is a grape capable of making powerful and very well-structured red wines. If you’re ready to learn more about cabernet sauvignon, where it grows, and the wines it can make, we present another Wine 101 class!
A little bit about cabernet sauvignon
All things considered, cabernet sauvignon is a young grape; believed to have first appeared in the mid-17th century, cabernet sauvignon was formed as a natural cross between cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc. While those two grapes couldn’t be more different, they did pass down one shared trait: a green bell pepper taste from a type of compound known as a pyrazine that is found in some wines made from cabernet sauvignon. As always, the exact flavors of a grape depend heavily on where the grapes are grown and how the wine was made, but other flavors associated with cabernet sauvignon are black currant, cedar, vanilla, baking spices, and other red and black fruit flavors
As a grape, cabernet sauvignon is pretty hardy, and usually isn’t prone to disease. Its flavors, however, are very dependent on the climate of the place it’s grown: whether or not cabernet sauvignon grown a given place is better blended or made into a single-varietal wine very much depends on how much time the grape is given to sit on the vine and ripen. In warmer and sunnier climates -- like in California or parts of South America -- the weather is pretty conducive to long ripening times, which allows vintners to keep cabernet out on the vine and give it time to fully ripen, and will then make those grapes into single-varietal wines. Contrast that to a place like the Medoc in Bordeaux, where the weather isn’t quite as sunny and warm, and you end up with a grape more likely to be blended and turned into a top-notch wine.
Where does it grow, and what kinds of wines does it make?
Answer: in many places, and all sorts! Given its hardiness, cabernet sauvignon can be grown and made into excellent wines in many places. In France, it’s heavily grown in the Bordeaux region, and is usually the leading grape for wine -- known simply as “Bordeaux” wine -- coming from the “left bank” of Bordeaux. The soils in that part of Bordeaux lend themselves well to growing high quality cabernet sauvignon, so the vignerons -- or grape growers -- mostly grow those grapes. There is also cabernet sauvignon grown on the opposing “right bank,” but Merlot is often the leading blending grape on that side of the river. Owing to their heavier use of cabernet sauvignon, left bank Bordeaux wines often age well, have strong and grippy tannins, and often feature flavors of blackcurrant and plum.
Staying in Europe, cabernet sauvignon has also found a home in Italy, where it’s blended with native Italian grapes to make some delicious and powerful Super Tuscan wines. Because cabernet sauvignon isn’t a grape native to the country, Italian wine making laws traditionally did not permit for the grape to be used in “quality” wines. However, that changed in the early 90s, when a special classification -- the Indicazione Geografica Tipica, or just IGT -- was created to recognize and give weight to some of the less “traditional” wines Italian winemakers were creating using non-native grapes like cabernet sauvignon.
Moving to the New World, cabernet sauvignon is found all over South America, the United States, and Australia, but grows especially well in Chile’s Maipo Valley, where the grape is made into some world class single varietal wines with earthy and black fruit flavors. It also grows very well in parts of Argentina and it is often made into single varietal wines.
In the United States, the grape dominates in California’s Napa Valley, and constitutes about 40% of all grapes grown in that viticultural area. Staying in California, the grape is also grown heavily in Napa’s neighbor Sonoma County, and can be found growing even further south in places like Paso Robles. Living up to its reputation as the Golden State, wines made from California-grown cabernet sauvignon are often sold as single-varietal -- wines made from the juices of a single type of grape -- because the better weather means more time for the grapes to ripen. Outside of California, cabernet sauvignon is primarily found growing in Washington State, but can also be found growing as far east as Virginia, where it’s primarily used to create Bordeaux-style blends. California cabernets are often very fruit forward and downright jammy, but there are so many different winemakers with different styles, that the only way to find out what kind of cabernet you like is to try a bunch.
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