Cabernet Sauvignon

What is Cabernet Sauvignon and where is it found?

A cross between Cabernet Franc and the white grape, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon is perhaps the world’s most famous red grape. Fanning out from its home in Bordeaux, where it remains the key grape in wines from both the Right Bank (ie north of the Dordogne river) and Left Bank (ie south of the Garonne river), Cabernet Sauvignon is now pretty much the world’s most widely planted red wine grape (just pipped at the post by Kyoho which is grown at large scale in China), and has proved popular in both New and Old World’s.

In France and Argentina it accounts for about 6% of the total vineyard area. In the US and South Africa that figure is closer to 10%, while in Australia and Chile it’s 17% and 20% respectively. In Spain it covers about 20,000 hectares, about the same as Syrah, although Cabernet Sauvignon is a more adaptable grape and you'll find more single varietal examples of Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon than Syrah.

Cabernet Sauvignon’s main characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon is a thick skinned, late-ripening grape, which grows in small, conical shaped clusters. Its thick skin, which is rather bluish in tone when on the vine, gives it plenty of colour and tannin, and it has well defined fruit flavours. All of which help it stand up well to wood and make it the perfect candidate for ageing in oak barrels.

What does Cabernet Sauvignon taste like?

Cabernet Sauvignon covers a pretty broad spectrum of flavours depending on where its grown and its degree of ripeness. When not fully ripe, you can expect fresh peppers and herbaceous, slightly bitter notes. But as it ripens that changes, and more concentrated fruit favours begin to emerge like blackcurrant, or even blackcurrant lozenge.

Cabernet Sauvignon also works with oak, and as it ages in barrels it can take on enticing aromas of clove, spice and musk, licorice, vanilla pods and sandalwood and cedar (which might remind you of the inside of a cigar box).

Where can I try some Cabernet Sauvignon?

Bordeaux may be is Cabernet Sauvignon’s spiritual home, but its global popularity means you don’t need to spend a fortune on a bottle from a famous Château to enjoy it. Here in Spain you’ll find vineyards growing the grape in Castilla La Mancha, Aragon, Catalunya, Navarra, Valencia and Extremadura. A consistently good Spanish Cab, try Dehesa del Carrizal Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Vino de Pago Dehesa del Carrizal in Castilla La Mancha.

Airén

At just over 200,000 hectares (or 21% of total vines planted) Airén is Spain’s most widely grown white grape and second only to Tempranillo at 203,000 hectares.

Albariño

Albariño is a white wine grape most commonly found in the region of Rias Baixas, one of the five official wine-growing regions in Galicia. It produces wines with lovely fresh fruit and crisp citrus flavours that are beautiful to drink.

Albillo Real

Albillo Real is a native Spanish white variety grown historically in Castille, especially Ribera del Duero, Avila and Madrid, as well as Galicia.

Alicante Bouschet

Alicante Bouschet is a red grape with red flesh, one of what the French call "dyer" varieties because they add a deep colour to red wine.

Bobal

Bobal is Spain’s 3^rd most widely grown wine grape, but still not that well known. Traditionally it was used in bulk wines, but these days it’s increasingly being used for single varietal wines.

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is an early budding, medium ripening grape variety with medium to high acidity which adapts well to different soil types. It is one of Spain's less common grapes, but can still be found in places like Castilla la Mancha, Catalunya and Valencia.

Cariñena, Mazuelo or Samsó

Cariñena is a Spanish grape variety with many names - Carignan, Mazuelo, Samsó. Naming conventions aside, having once been the dominant wine grape in much of Spain only to fall out of favour, this grape is now making a comeback.

Chardonnay

One of the wine world’s most well-known grape varieties. In Spain it's used on its own or blended in Cava, and is popular because it can soak up the influence of its environment or the techniques of its winemaker like few other grapes.

Garnacha

Garnacha is one of the most widely grown red grapes in the world and Spain's third most popular red grape. From the famous Priorat to the lesser-known Méntrida, this grape has become a staple of the Spanish wine sector.

Garnacha Blanca

Garnacha Blanca is a wine with the Mediterranean in its DNA. Imagine yourself walking along a coastal path on a spring day with the smell of scrubland herbs and flowers mixing with the fresh sea air. Well, if you could bottle that it would probably be a Garnacha Blanca.

Giró

For many people, Giró is synonymous with, or a very old clone of, Garnacha and it’s the name given to the grape in the Levante region

Godello

Godello is a Spanish white wine grape primarily grown in the regions of Valdeorras and Monterrei in Galicia, and in Bierzo in Castilla & Leon. It produces wines with lovely citrusy flavours and delicate saline notes.

Graciano

Graciano is perhaps best known as "Rioja's third grape" after Tempranillo and Garnacha. It has a very dark-hued skin and gives dark, intense red wines with good acidity and levels of tannin. It tends to give fresh, elegant wines which are quite full in the mouth with a long finish.

Macabeo or Viura

Macabeo, or Viura as you’ll see it referred to in Rioja, is Spain’s fifth most widely planted grape. In Catalunya, it's commonly used in Cava whilst in Rioja, it's an important part of the region’s exciting experimentation with new white wines.

Malvasía

Malvasia is a Spanish white wine grape variety. It's popular in the Canary Islands, where you’ll find it as Malvasía Volcanica or Malvasía Aromatica. In mainland Spain, it's known as Doña Blanca, Malvasía Blanca, Alarije, Blanca Roja, Rojal and Subirat Parent amongst other names.

Mencía

Mencía is particularly popular in DOs like Bierzo or Ribeira Sacra, Monterrei and Valdeorras in Galicia. In general, Mencía wines are fresh and perfumed, with very appealing fruit that works well with very subtle oak or no oak at all.

Merlot

Originally from Bordeaux, Merlot is now grown in close to 40 countries across the world. It tends to give quite plump, juicy and rounded wines, which makes it the ideal blending partner for the more austere grapes.

Merseguera

Merseguera has the reputation of being rather neutral. But in the right hands, it can produce fresh, aromatic wines with light acidity and low alcohol.

Monastrell

Tempranillo may be better known, but Monastrell is one of Spain’s most well-loved red grapes. It has an especially important role in the winemaking culture in the Levante region, and in particular the south-east of the country.

Moravia Agria

Moravia Agria is one of Spain’s more obscure red grape varieties, grown principally in Castilla La Mancha, especially in DO Manchuela.

Moscatel

Moscatel is a highly aromatic grape variety. Its key characteristic is that it is one of the only wine grapes that produces wines that actually taste like grapes.

Palomino Fino

Palomino Fino is a white grape variety which originated in Andalucia and is most closely associated with Jerez where it's the key grape used to make a whole range of wines, mainly fortified but some still wines too.

Parellada

Parellada is a white wine grape, commonly used in the Spanish wine regions of Valencia and Catalunya. Alongside Xarel-lo and Macabeo, it is one of the three core grapes used to make the Spanish sparkling wine Cava.

Pedro Ximénez

Pedro Ximénez (PX) is traditionally associated with Andalucia, and particularly the sweet wines of Montilla-Moriles. In fact, some producers in Jerez or Malaga still routinely import sweet, sticky PX wines from Montilla-Moriles to sweeten their blends.

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is one of the world’s best known and best loved red grapes. But it’s also a notoriously delicate grape to work with and requires optimum growing conditions.

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is one of the world’s most popular white varieties. In many parts of Spain, the climate is a little too hot for Sauvignon Blanc to grow in large quantities. But you can find it used quite extensively in DO Rueda.

Sousón

Sousón is the most popular red grape in Rías Baixas, the Galician wine region known for its white Albariño wines. But it’s also found in the Spanish wine regions of Ribeira Sacra, Ribeiro, Valdeorras and Monterrei.

Syrah

Originally from the Rhône Valley in France, Syrah has found fame in Australia, Argentina, Chile, South Africa and the US. But in Spain it is still largely used in blends.

Tempranillo

Tempranillo is the most common wine grape in Spain. Whilst it's grown and used for winemaking in many Spanish wine regions, it's most commonly associated with the wine regions of Ribera del Duero and Rioja.

Torrontés

Torrontés is the second most widely planted white wine grape in the Galician wine region of Ribeiro, with smaller plantings in Rías Baixas and Ribeira Sacra. Torrontés makes very aromatic Spanish white wines.

Treixadura

Treixadura is the main white grape in the Ribeiro DO in Galicia, where you’ll often find it blended with other local Galician white varieties like Godello or Torrontés. It produces aromatic, refreshing white wines.

Verdejo

Verdejo’s popularity shot up in the noughties as it became a sort of substitute for Sauvignon Blanc. Nowadays, 4 in every 10 bottles of white wine sold in Spain is made from the Verdejo grape. It's mainly grown in Castilla y León and particularly in the Spanish wine region Rueda.

Xarel-lo

Xarel-lo is a white grape variety from Catalunya in Spain. It is most commonly associated with the Spanish sparkling wine Cava, where it is blended with Parellada and Macabeo.