Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is the most famous red wine grape on earth — the backbone of the great wines of Bordeaux and the benchmark red of nearly every wine country that has tried its hand. Powerful, structured and almost immortal in the bottle, it is, by common consent, the king of red grapes. Yet it began as a happy accident in a Bordeaux vineyard only a few centuries ago¹.

The king of red grapes

No red grape is planted more widely, or copied more faithfully, than Cabernet Sauvignon. Its home is Bordeaux, and its name — roughly “wild Cabernet” — hints at its chance origins. From that base it has conquered California, Australia, Chile, Italy and beyond, so that a well-made Cabernet has become a kind of universal language of fine red wine¹.

A happy accident in Bordeaux

For centuries no one knew where Cabernet Sauvignon came from. Then, in 1997, DNA analysis at the University of California, Davis solved the mystery: it is the natural offspring of a red grape, Cabernet Franc, and a white one, Sauvignon Blanc, which must have crossed spontaneously in a Bordeaux vineyard sometime in the seventeenth century. One of the world’s noblest grapes was, in effect, a lucky chance².

Built to last

Everything about Cabernet Sauvignon is built for structure and longevity. Its berries are small and exceptionally thick-skinned, giving deep colour and firm tannins, and it ripens late, holding its acidity. Young, it tastes of blackcurrant — cassis — with cedar, tobacco and, when underripe, a leafy green note; aged for years in oak and bottle, it grows profound. Few wines reward patience so richly³.

Thick skin, firm tannin and cassis fruit — a red grape built to age for decades.— on Cabernet Sauvignon³

The soul of the Médoc

Cabernet reaches its summit on the gravel banks of the Médoc, on Bordeaux’s Left Bank, where the warm, well-drained stones ripen its late berries. There it forms the heart of the classic Bordeaux blend — softened with Merlot and a little Cabernet Franc — and the basis of the legendary first growths such as Latour and Mouton Rothschild, the most celebrated red wines in the world⁴.

The wine that beat Bordeaux

Its greatness proved portable. At the 1976 Judgment of Paris, a blind tasting in the French capital, a California Cabernet — the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars — was ranked above the finest red Bordeaux by an all-French jury. The result stunned the wine world and announced that great Cabernet could be made far beyond France⁵.

A grape without borders

Today Cabernet Sauvignon grows almost everywhere the climate allows: opulent in Napa Valley, minty and firm in Australia’s Coonawarra, structured in Chile’s Maipo, and blended into Italy’s “Super Tuscans.” Reliable, adaptable and instantly recognisable, it has become the default grape of ambitious red wine the world over⁶.

Frequently asked questions

Read more

• Stag’s Leap, the Cabernet that beat Bordeaux
• A history of Bordeaux wine
• The 1976 Judgment of Paris

References

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica — Cabernet Sauvignon. www.britannica.com ↩
2. Wine-Searcher — Cabernet Sauvignon. www.wine-searcher.com ↩
3. Wine Folly — Cabernet Sauvignon: Everything You Need To Know. winefolly.com ↩
4. U’wine — Cabernet Sauvignon: a grape variety from Bordeaux. u.wine ↩
5. Smithsonian National Museum of American History — The Judgment of Paris. americanhistory.si.edu ↩
6. Deutsches Weininstitut — Cabernet Sauvignon. www.winesofgermany.com ↩

Recommended reading

Vintage: The Story of Wine
Hugh Johnson
Follows Cabernet and Bordeaux through the whole history of fine wine.

A Short History of Wine
Rod Phillips
Good on Bordeaux and the global spread of Cabernet Sauvignon.

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