CAB•ER•NET SAU•VI•GNON

 By Mary Ewing-Mulligan

The red wine language of choice.

The name Cabernet Sauvignon is to wine what the name Mozart is to music or Picasso is to art. It’s a buzzword that’s recognized even by those who know next to nothing about the field in question. Like the names of the masters, it also connotes greatness; depending on the criteria, Cabernet Sauvignon is arguably the world’s greatest red wine grape.

Wine collectors particularly admire Cabernet Sauvignon, because the finest wines made from this grape are capable of aging for decades and have an excellent track record as investments. With age, these wines develop extraordinary aromas and flavors of leather, cedar, and tobacco, as well as an intriguing sweetness mystically born of time. Less sophisticated wine drinkers are likely to have a different view of Cabernet. While recognizing it as an important type of wine, many wine drinkers claim that Cabernet-based wines are too dry for them, probably referring to the mouth-drying effect that the wine can have due to the grape’s high levels of tannin, a substance that exists naturally in the grapes.

My own early associations with Cabernet Sauvignon were negative, but for political rather than gustatory reasons. Twenty-five years ago, I was a specialist in Italian wines and a staunch traditionalist. When winemakers in Piedmont and Tuscany, Italy’s greatest red wine regions, began importing Cabernet vines from France to plant in their own vineyards, I viewed the grape as a Gallic intruder whose presence would compromise the authenticity of Italian wines.

I have since come to love wines based on Cabernet, but I realize in retrospect that my instincts were somewhat correct. From its home base in France, Cabernet Sauvignon has invaded the vineyards of nearly every country on earth. In the international arena of fine wine, Cabernet has become the red wine language of choice.

SPIRITUAL HOME
Cabernet’s spiritual home is the Bordeaux region of France, where legendary wines such as Château Lafite-Rothschild and Château Latour have traditionally been made using 65 percent to 70 percent of Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with Merlot, Cabernet Franc (a Cabernet cousin), and one or two minor red grapes. The reputation these wines enjoyed even two centuries ago inspired the migration of the Cabernet grape to other countries, as did the practical fact that this grape is relatively easy to grow. Chile, California, and South Africa all began growing Cabernet in the mid to late 19th century.

But Bordeaux was not the only inspiration for the spread of Cabernet Sauvignon into the far corners of the wine world. In more recent history, California’s success with Cabernet has been the likely inspiration for plantings of the grape in Tuscany, Portugal, and parts of Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the style of California’s Cabernet wines has influenced the way that some Cabernet-based wines are being made in Chile, the South of France, Spain, and even in Bordeaux itself.

Today, Cabernet producers have two distinct role models for their wines. When you uncork a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, the flavor intensity, texture, and approachability of the wine you pour will depend on where the wine comes from, and which style the winemaker emulates.

Generally speaking, Cabernet grapes are deeply pigmented, small, and thick-skinned, resulting in a dark and tannic wine. In terms of aroma and flavor, Cabernet’s range is narrower than some other red grapes; black currants are considered a typical flavor, as are herbal notes (expressed as mint in some places) and vegetal flavors such as bell pepper, especially when the grapes are less than ideally ripe. When you taste a young Cabernet-based wine, the dominant impression is often one of toughness and character more than flavor complexity.

Like any other grape variety, however, Cabernet Sauvignon grapes change their character somewhat according to the environment where they grow. Differences in climate and soil affect the grapes, as do varying human approaches to the cultivation of the vine.

OLD WORLD VS. NEW
In the classic Old World model (Bordeaux), Cabernet wines are, first of all, not really Cabernet wines, because they contain enough Merlot and Cabernet Franc to disqualify them from being labeled by varietal, as Cabernet Sauvignon. They are austere wines whose aromas and flavors are subtle and not particularly fruity. Until these wines age for about 10 years for lesser wines, or 20 to 30 years for the better wines, they are fairly inexpressive. But what they lack in their youth, they more than make up for in their maturity. A properly aged Bordeaux is one of the most memorable experiences a wine lover can have.

In the New World model of Cabernet that has emerged principally from California’s experience with this grape, the wines have fruity aromas and flavors. Specific fruit descriptors can range from fresh berries (raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, currants) to fresh plums or even stewed plums; herbal nuances such as eucalyptus or mint are often present. The wines have rich, dense texture attributable to high levels of ripeness, and their tannins are relatively soft. Even when the wines are young, you get a mouthful of flavor from them.

Cabernet wines are named Cabernet Sauvignon in the New World model. Even European winemakers have followed this practice and applied the “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” principle. The two notable exceptions are Bordeaux, where the wines are named for the château, or property, where they are grown, and Tuscany, where the wines carry proprietary or estate names such as Solaia, Sassicaia, or Sammarco.

But even if a wine is named Cabernet Sauvignon, more often than not it’s a blended wine. Local laws rarely require that a wine be made entirely from the named grape; California Cabernets can contain 25 percent of another wine, for example, and Cabernets from Australia and most of Europe can contain up to 15 percent of something else. While some elite California producers such as Staglin Family Vineyard, Shafer Vineyards, Beaulieu Vineyards (BV), and Joseph Phelps Vineyards do make 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignons, the majority of producers in California and elsewhere blend.

A MODEL BLEND
Borrowing from the Bordeaux model, most winemakers choose Merlot and/or Cabernet Franc as their blending grapes. The blend can end up having more flavor complexity than Cabernet alone would, and can taste more balanced. If the Cabernet grapes were very intense, blending can create a softer, gentler wine. But if the Cabernet raw material was weak in flavor, from vineyards that strained to produce too many grapes, for example, or from rain at harvest time, the blend can be richer than the pure Cabernet.

It’s ironic that such a noble grape as Cabernet Sauvignon would so often be blended, as if it is somehow incomplete on its own. But that’s what happens, almost everywhere. The issue is not just that Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc is a magic combination. Australian winemakers often beef up Cabernet with their best grape variety, Syrah (called Shiraz there), while Tuscans use Cabernet to enhance their top native grape, Sangiovese. In Lebanon, the Château Musar winery blends Cabernet with Cinsaut, a red grape from the Rhône valley in France.

Rather than suggesting any inadequacy on Cabernet’s part, though, all this blending is probably testimony to Cabernet’s enormous appeal to winemakers, who can’t seem to resist planting the grape and tinkering with the blending to create individual expressions of great wine. And it is testimony to Cabernet’s accommodating nature, which in the final analysis might be this grape’s greatest virtue. Warm climate Napa Valley or cooler Bordeaux; generous and fruity or tight and austere; solo act or blend, wherever or however it is grown and vinified, Cabernet endures.

Cabernet’s adaptability means that you can never be sure exactly what you’ll get from a Cabernet. The best Bordeaux wines will be late bloomers, although they are fruitier today than they once were, thanks to California’s example. The top California Cabs will be rich, flavorful, and enjoyable even when young, although a few such as Diamond Creek, Ridge Monte Bello, or Heitz Martha’s Vineyard need age to express themselves, just like Bordeaux wines. South African and Tuscan Cabernets fall somewhere to the Bordeaux side of the middle ground, while Chilean Cabernets fall slightly more to the California side. Australian Cabernets are as fruity as California’s are, but tend to be more elegant and less dense, especially if they don’t contain much Shiraz. The few Spanish and Portuguese Cabernets that you can find tend to have California-like intensity of flavor, but less fruitiness.

Confusing? Sure. An adventure in taste? Most definitely. ©©

Mary Ewing-Mulligan is America’s only female Master of Wine. She is owner of the International Wine Center in New York and co-author of Wine For Dummies.

FAVORITE CLUB CABS
Boston College Club, Boston, Massachusetts. Jordan 1995 and Opus One, Meritage 1994 — David Fortunato, service director, pairs these wines with the club’s beef tenderloin and rack of lamb with sautéed eggplant.

Desert Falls Country Club, Palm Desert, California. Ferrari-Carano 1994 — Michael McBride, food and beverage director, says members enjoy this Cabernet with a nice cut of beef.

Shoreby Club, near Cleveland, Ohio. Alexander Valley 1994 — Maître d’ Tom Eville recommends this popular Cabernet with filet mignon, grilled swordfish, and lamb chops.

Stonehenge Golf & Country Club, near Richmond, Virginia. Sycamore Lane — This Stonehenge house wine is a private label made exclusively for ClubCorp. Patrick Boykin, food and beverage operations manager, says members favor it with red meat.

The Summit Club, Birmingham, Alabama. Jordan 1995 — Chad Boykin, service director, says this is a favorite among Summit Club members, matched with red meat dishes, wild game, or heavy red sauce pasta dishes.

Town Point Club, Norfolk, Virginia. Caymus Vineyards 1994 — This is the personal favorite of Todd Taylor, assistant maître d’ and wine steward. He enjoys the wine with a big steak, preferably a New York strip, and with chocolate for dessert. Jordan 1995 — Town Point members, however, seem to favor the Jordan, consistently the club’s best-selling wine.