Crush Course: Cabernet Sauvignon
The World’s Most Famous Red, Explained
Wine Ideas is diving into your favorite grapes the first of the month for the rest of the year. My most requested grape, by far, is Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s the earth’s most planted grape variety. You know, you love it, and we’re going to dive in to the why.
TLDR on Cabernet Sauvignon:
Cabernet Sauvignon is a red grape that produces dry and full-bodied wines with medium acidity and high tannins.
It can taste like red and black fruits, like dark cherries and currants, plus toasty baking spices, graphite, and green bell peppers.
Most Cabernet Sauvignon is aged at least a little bit before release, in barrel or in bottle, with some bottles showing best 5-10 years old, and some showing their best well beyond that.
Cab Sauv is the love child of two famous French grapes: Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. The connective genetic thread between these three grapes? The chemical compound called “pyrazines” that makes them taste vegetal, herbaceous, and slightly spicy.
Cabernet, unlike Pinot Noir, adapts to its climate! We see it in hot and sunny places like Napa Valley and Tuscany, and we see it in cooler, more maritime climates like Sonoma and Bordeaux.
When people say “aging like a fine wine,” they’re talking about aging Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a grape that can age, due to its strong bones: the alcohol, the tannin, and the acidity. Some of the most memorable bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon I’ve tasted have been older than me.
Some of my rules for Cabernet:
Serve it room temperature or, if possible, just below.
Drink it from a regular wine glass. As long as it has sloped sides and a stem, you’re good to go. If you have an extra large one, that could be great! But totally unnecessary to go out and buy a new glass.
You can decant it if you want! Many examples of Cabernet will benefit from decanting, and very few will be worse for it.
You can age it if you want! It can age beautifully, but only if you like aged wine should you drink it aged. It is not necessarily better or worse, but unequivocally different with time.
Bordeaux
It’s tough to find a wine that is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, but especially in Bordeaux (a wine region in Western France, famous for Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines), it’s nearly impossible.
In Bordeaux, blending grapes developed out of necessity. The climate there is cooler, wetter, and less predictable than somewhere like Napa Valley, so no single grape performs perfectly every year. Cabernet Sauvignon might struggle to fully ripen in a cooler vintage, while other grapes like Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, can pick up the slack.
For wines that are Cabernet-based blends, head to the left bank of Bordeaux. For wines that are Merlot-based with a splash of Cabernet, head to the right bank of Bordeaux. Wine Ideas is not and will probably never be the place for a deep dive into the geography of Bordeaux, so if “left bank” and “right bank” confuses you, text me from the Bordeaux aisle.
I don’t think inexpensive Bordeaux is a category anyone should be drinking.
Unfortunately, the bidding for delicious Bordeaux starts around $60 retail. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Chateau Lynch-Bages Echo de Lynch-Bages 2017 $64 A great hack in Bordeaux is finding a winery (Chateau) you love, then drink their second label. Most of these wineries make a “grand vin”, a top wine, but they also make a second tier wine with grapes from their younger vines. It evokes their house style, for a fraction of the cost. Lynch-Bages in one of my favorite chateau, and Echo is their second label.
Chateau Phelan Segur 2016 $89.99 I love this wine. From the appellation of St. Estephe on the left bank, this is super classic Bordeaux - structured and tannic with red fruits, graphite, and black tea. Drink today or hold on for 10 more years.
Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou 2015 $369.99 Bordeaux really is a region where money buys you quality. I can’t quite explain it better than that. Wines really just get better the more you pay and this is a great example. At Ducru, they are relentlessly attentive in the vineyard, spare no expense in the winery, and all of it is clear when you taste it. The tannins are silky and refined, the fruit is nuanced, and the wine is simply delicious.
California
Napa doesn’t have this weather inconsistency problem. Cabernet Sauvignon ripes consistently under the beautiful California sun, however, they do still blend! Typically American wines labelled “Cabernet Sauvignon” are only a majority of Cabernet Sauvignon, with other grapes blended to round out the color and plushness. This doesn’t make them less “cabby” in fact, it probably makes them more!
I’m proud to say I’ve never organized wine.com’s selection of California Cabernet priced low to high… until now. I suggest you never do this. I am deeply disturbed by the garbage under $25.
Unfortunately, I suggest you steer extremely clear of any and all Cali Cabs from the liquor store, from the big box grocer, and any that has anything to do with Francis Ford Coppola or anyone named Josh. While I always love wine.com, I think with a category as vast as “cali cab” I strongly suggest you go to a wine store and let a professional (like me!) point you in a direction. Do not shoot in the dark in this category, as there is so much slop muddying the waters. The odds are high that if you do, you’ll land on something terrible.
Bedrock Wine Company Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon 2024 $49.99 This is a Cabernet from Sonoma, not Napa: a slightly cooler climate, so a slightly fresher style of wine. A touch lower in alcohol, a touch more tart, a little more balanced than some examples from Napa.
Snowden “The Ranch” Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 $63 To me, this is what people want when they want big and great Napa Cab. Made by one of my all time favorite American winemakers, Diana Snowden-Seyess, this wine hits all the marks: generous oak, plush tannins, ripe red fruit, full body. Perfect at this price.
Dalla Valle Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 $282 Maya Dalla Valle is my second favorite woman making wine in the valley after Diana Snowden, though they’re all tied with Cathy Corison, really. She’s making wine on a specific site in Oakville, within Napa Valley, with ancient volcanic soils, giving the Cabernet the perfect amount of drainage. The wines are powerful yet somehow restrained. They are impeccably balanced and shock me everytime. Wait 10 years to open this one.
Cabernet from around the world
Vasse Felix Filius Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 $23.99 This might be the best, least expensive Cabernet I’ve ever tasted. It’s coming from the Margaret River Valley in Western Australia - total middle of nowhere. This wine drinks like Bordeaux for $60, plush tannins, ripe red fruit, generous and polished. I pour this wine at Wine Ideas events all the time.
Ornellaia 2023 $279.99 A result of awesome Italian rebellion, this is a “Super Tuscan,” a style of wine with no legal designation but the utilization of international grapes (like Cabernet) with modern winemaking techniques in a place as traditional as Tuscany. These wines are powerful and age-worthy. Sit on this one for 20 years and thank me later.
Why is Cabernet Sauvignon so expensive?
Demand. You say things like “I love a big cab” so demand goes up, so prices go up. Cab is easy to pronounce, and evokes masculinity that men love.
If you like Cabernet but want to do the Wine Ideas subscriber thing by asking for something different but similar, seek out Malbec from Argentina, GSM blends from the South of France, Zinfandel from Paso Robles, Tempranillo from Rioja, Priorat, or Ribera Del Duero, or Cabernet Franc from the Loire.
Some Cabernet Sauvignon-related terms you might need to know:
First Growth
In the famous 1855 Bordeaux Classification, this refers to the highest-ranked estates in Bordeaux, originally judged by reputation and market price. Now, 5 estates hold this honor: Margaux, Haut-Brion, Latour, Lafite Rothschild, and Mouton Rothschild. These are the most expensive and most elite Cabernet-based wines coming out of not just Bordeaux, not just France, but the entire world. These are the ultimate collector’s bottles, and if you get a chance to taste one of them, take it.
Cab & a slab
You’ve probably had a glass of cab at a steakhouse aka with a slab of meat. It’s a classic pairing and it almost always works perfectly. Cabernet has intense tannins, perfect for preparing your mouth for another piece of fatty juicy meat. Ideal.
Cabernet Franc
The father grape of Cabernet Sauvignon, though way less famous. If someone says “cabernet” they are almost definitely referring to Cabernet Sauvignon, though Cabernet Franc is just as much a cab. It’s often times lighter, fresher, and more savory, leaning harder into those pyrazines that make it taste like grilled bell peppers.
Robert Parker
Both admired and criticized, Parker fundamentally changed how wine was sold, priced, and talked about around the world, with his 100-point scoring system. His reviews helped make rich, ripe, powerful wines, especially Cabernet-based wines from Bordeaux and Napa Valley, enormously valuable and collectible. He’s the reason you’ve heard of Cabernet Sauvignon and not Nerello Mascalese.
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I want your feedback!
Great Substack. This is why the world needs professional somms and Isabel Kardon Neuhaus. Good info to help guide us. And even KK made it into the column!
Loved this article!