Cabernet sauvignon

The Cabernet Sauvignon grape variety comes from France. It is considered the most famous red wine grape in the world and is one of the most widely planted. It thrives particularly well on permeable, less fertile soils, such as in its native Bordeaux, in the Médoc and Graves appellations. There in Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon is an important blending partner of Merlot, Cabernet Franc or Petit Verdot and hardly ever appears as a single variety. Cabernet Sauvignon has small, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with remarkable tannins that can be among the most long-lived. This grape variety is also excellent for ageing in small oak barrels. Barrique and Cabernet Sauvignon are made for each other, according to an almost unanimous winemaker opinion.

The “citizen of the world” among the red grape varieties has also become at home everywhere in the overseas wine regions. In California, Canada, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, this grape variety produces great wines. And here, too, the characteristics of the grape variety are often used in cuvées, i.e. blends. So-called Bordeaux blends are very popular in the overseas wine-growing regions.

New Zealand’s best Cabernet Sauvignon wines come mainly from the Hawke’s Bay region on the North Island. Here in the Gimblett Gravels, conditions are similar to those in Bordeaux. Australian Cabernet Sauvignon wines are also in great demand worldwide. They are mostly characterised by their rich blend of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla. The McLaren Vale and Coonawarra regions in South Australia are outstanding. South African red wines are very often based on the grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon. In almost all wine regions of the Western Cape, the grape variety plays an important role, whether as a soloist or as a partner in a Bordeaux blend. Top regions are in particular Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl. We also find Cabernet Sauvignon in Canadian wines, but here, especially in the Niagara region, its brother Cabernet Franc dominates the wine scene.