Cabernet Sauvignon is the best known red grape in the world, and it earns most of that reputation. Deep, structured, and complex enough to keep you interested over a whole bottle. Its history runs across several continents and about four hundred years.
We do not sell it. Our reds come from North Macedonia and the Southern Rhône. But Cabernet is the reference point most people use when they talk about red wine, so it is worth understanding properly. Here are the facts worth knowing.
Noble Beginnings
Cabernet Sauvignon is both a grape and a wine, and it has been around since the seventeenth century. It came about as a chance crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, which is where the name comes from. That parentage was only confirmed by DNA testing in 1996.
It is grown everywhere now, but its home is south-west France, and specifically Bordeaux. In 1976 a Napa Valley Cabernet beat the Bordeaux first growths at a blind tasting in Paris, an event that became known as the Judgment of Paris. It changed how the world thought about Californian wine more or less overnight.
Beyond Bordeaux, the regions to know are Napa Valley, South Australia and Chile.
Climate and Adaptability
Cabernet is planted more widely than any other red wine grape, somewhere around 340,000 hectares worldwide. The reason is simple: it adapts. It handles warm climates and cool ones, and it prefers well-drained soil.
What it does not do is taste the same everywhere. The gravel soils of Bordeaux produce a firmer, more structured wine with real grip. The warmth of Napa gives you riper fruit and softer tannin. Same grape, two different drinks.
That is terroir doing its work, and it is why Cabernet is such a useful grape for learning what terroir actually means.
Flavours and Structure
Cabernet is full-bodied and deeply coloured. Young, it leads with dark fruit: blackcurrant, black cherry, plum.
Behind that come the secondary notes. Cedar, oak and vanilla from the barrel. Green bell pepper and black pepper from a group of compounds called pyrazines, which show more strongly when the grapes ripen in cooler conditions.
The other defining feature is tannin. Cabernet has a lot of it, which is what gives the wine its structure and its ability to age.
Food Pairing
High tannin and good acidity make Cabernet a natural with rich, savoury food. The tannin cuts through fat, and both the wine and the dish come out better.
Grilled steak with a pepper sauce is the standard answer and it is the standard answer for a reason. Lamb, stews, charred meat off a grill, and hard aged cheeses all work.
Ageing
Cabernet ages as well as any red grape. High acidity, firm structure and plenty of tannin are exactly the components that let a wine survive years in bottle.
What changes is the fruit. The bright blackcurrant of a young Cabernet mellows and recedes, and the secondary notes step forward: leather, earth, dried herbs, tobacco, and the note wine writers insist on calling pencil shavings. A good one will keep for a decade or more, some considerably longer.
Blends
Cabernet rarely stands alone. A wine that is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is unusual, particularly in Bordeaux, where blending is the whole tradition.
Blending softens it. Merlot is the usual partner, filling out the middle and taking the edge off the tannin. Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carménère are the others permitted in Bordeaux.
There is also a white relative worth a mention. Cabernet Blanc is a modern hybrid bred in the 1990s, crossing Cabernet Sauvignon with a disease-resistant hybrid grape. It is grown mostly in Germany and the Netherlands.
Where To Go Instead
If Cabernet is what you normally drink, the closest thing in our range is Vranec Luda Mara. Dark, spicy, firm tannin, long finish. It is not a Cabernet, and it is not trying to be, but it asks the same things of a meal.
The rest of the reds are on the reds page.