Grape variety
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon: the cross of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc behind Médoc and Napa. Origin, style, where it grows and what to eat with it.
- Colour
- Red
- Parentage
- Natural cross of Cabernet Franc × Sauvignon Blanc (DNA analysis 1997), from the Bordeaux area
- Main regions
- Bordeaux (Médoc, Graves), Napa Valley, Chile, Australia, Tuscany, South Africa
- Typical aromas
- Blackcurrant, cedar, pencil lead, tobacco, green pepper (when underripe)
- Classic pairing
- Rack of lamb, grilled entrecôte, braised beef, Alpine cheese
- Grown in Switzerland
- About 65 hectares, mainly in Valais, Ticino and Geneva
Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape against which many people measure the idea of great red wine: dark, tannic and made to age. DNA analysis at the University of California, Davis, showed in 1997 that it is a cross of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, a chance crossing that probably happened in the 17th century around Bordeaux without any breeder’s help. At about 340,000 hectares it was the most widely planted wine grape in the world in 2015; only the Chinese table grape Kyoho covered more ground.
The berries are small and thick-skinned, and the grape ripens late. That gives deep colour, plenty of tannin and firm acidity, and it explains why the wines last so long. Where the grapes do not ripen fully, the wine recalls green pepper; these are pyrazines, which fade as the fruit ripens. In moderately warm places blackcurrant (cassis), violet, mint and eucalyptus join in, and in hot years plum and jam. With age and barrel ageing come cedar, cigar box, tobacco and pencil lead.
In Bordeaux it rules the left bank of the Gironde: the Médoc, with Pauillac, Saint-Estèphe, Saint-Julien and Margaux, and the Graves, on gravel soils that warm up quickly. About a fifth of the region’s red vines are Cabernet Sauvignon, behind Merlot, which covers more than half. There it is almost always blended: Merlot makes it rounder, Cabernet Franc more spicy, Petit Verdot adds colour and structure. That Bordeaux recipe was taken up by many growers in the New World and in Tuscany. In Napa Valley it is the leading grape, and a 1973 Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon won the red wines at the 1976 “Judgement of Paris”. In Chile it is the most planted variety, with more than 30,000 hectares; in Australia it shapes Coonawarra and Margaret River; in Tuscany it gives Sassicaia from Bolgheri.
In Switzerland it is a marginal grape at about 65 hectares, mainly in Valais, Ticino and Geneva, because it needs a long, warm autumn. It has left descendants here, though: at the research station in Changins, Carminoir was bred in 1982 from Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Swiss breeder Valentin Blattner crossed Cabernet Sauvignon with Regent in 1991 to make Cabernet Blanc, a white, disease-resistant variety. At the table, Cabernet Sauvignon calls for meat: rack of lamb, grilled entrecôte, a braise, with a mature hard cheese such as Alpine cheese. Fat and protein soften its tannin. Serve it at 16 to 18 degrees, young wines after decanting.