CABERNET SAUVIGNON
“ I’
magine
you ve filled a new leather bag with a pound of black cherries and held it to your chest while rolling down a hill.
”
Yum.
Wine Country The top 3 major wine regions France, Italy and Spain. They produce almost of the world are
half of all the wine produced in the world.
To help you wrap
your brain around the enough wine to fill
5,127 olympic-sized
swimming pools.
France While France and Italy compete for the top wine production region of the world they are also reducing wine production every year. France has lowered production by 11% since 2007.
Chile Chile is proud of the red wine variety Carmenere, known as the ‘lost varietal’ of Bordeaux. Still, export markets demand ztraditional varieties.
United States 90% of wine from the United States is from California. California is home to the world’s largest wine producer, Gallo, in Modesto, CA.
How To Make Wine Depending on the grape, the region and the kind of wine that a winemaker wishes to produce, the exact steps in the harvesting process will vary in time,
technique and technology.
But
for the most part, every wine harvest includes these basic vine-to-wine steps:
1 Pick the Grapes
Most vineyards will start with white grapes and then move to red varietals. The grapes are collected in bins or lugs and then transported to the crushing pad. This is where the process of turning grapes into juice and then into wine begins.
2 Crush the Grapes
No matter how or when the grapes were picked, they all get crushed in some fashion in the next step. The destemmer, which is a piece of winemaking machinery that does exactly what it says, removes the stems from the clusters and lightly crushes the grapes.
3 Ferment the Grapes
Simply put, fermentation is where the sugar converts into alcohol. There are plenty of techniques and technologies used during this process to accompany the different kinds of grapes.
4 Age the Wine
Winemakers have lots of choices in this step, and again they all depend on the kind of wine one wants to create. Flavors in a wine become more intense due to several of these winemaking choices.
5 Bottle the wine
When the winemaker feels a wine has reached its full expression in aging, then it’s time to bottle the wine for consumption.
Flavor Profile Since Cabernet Sauvignon is
grown in a wide range of climates and regions throughout the world it has varied flavors.
Fundamentally speaking, Cab
is a full-bodied red wine with dark fruit flavors and savory tastes from black pepper to bell pepper.
Let’s take a look at
two regions that make two very different styles of Cabernet Sauvignon to understand how the flavors differ.
From Bordeaux and the Old World A 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Old World is rare because Old World winemakers are awesome at blending varietals together. That said, Cabernet Sauvignon from Bordeaux tastes more like the herbal/ floral flavors of graphite, violets and tobacco than fruit. When you smell a Bordeaux, you’ll often get hints of black cherries and licorice along with the earthiness.
From California and the New World Cabernet Sauvignon from New World countries are often a touch fruitier than their Old World cousins. Expect flavors of Black Cherry, Licorice and Black Pepper all wrapped together with a dash of Vanilla.
Flavors Flavors: Bell Pepper, Green Olive, Black Cherry, Blackberry
Other: Black Pepper, Tobacco, Vanilla
Color:
Cabernet Sauvignon Food Pairing Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the more complex and layered wines out there. It has higher tannins and a savory character often described as black pepper and tobacco.
Because of Cab’s traits,
look for foods high in fat and
Cabernet Sauvignon food pairing.
umami flavors for
Food to Pair With Try Cabernet Sauvignon with a charred gruyere burger, a mushroom pizza with tomato sauce or some marinated ribeye steak. To champion the fruit flavors in Cabernet Sauvignon, don’t pair it with chocolate. Instead, pair wine with braised short ribs or mushroom stroganoff. The powerful umami flavors overcome the savory quality of Cabernet Sauvignon leaving the berry flavors out in the open to shine.
Suggested Cabernet Sauvignon Hahn Estates Central Coast ($12) 2005 Ravenswood Vintner’s Blend California ($12) SKN Napa Valley ($14) Hayman & Hill Napa Valley Reserve Selection Cabernet ($15) Hawk Crest ($14) Michael Pozzan Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon ($15)