[MUSIC] Welcome back. This lesson marks a shift from white grapes to reds, starting with Cabernet Sauvignon. Most wine authors, tasters and wine judges refer to Cabernet as the king, the king of red wine of the world. The capital old world region for Cabernet is Bordeaux in the Maritime region of western France. But it has been taken, and planted virtually everywhere in the world, all over the old world certainly, wherever it can ripe them. But extensively, throughout the new world, both Northern and Southern hemispheres. So these days, it's the most widely planted red grape, a distinction that formerly belong to Grenache. You'll be hard pressed to find any Bordeaux red labeled Cabernet however, since the French Appellation d'Origin Controller laws do not allow varietal labeling. Most Bordeaux reds however, are blends with Cabernet being an important part of the flavor, often the dominant one. Cabernet is the offspring of a cross long ago between Sauvignon Blanc which is a white grape which and is the source of Cabernet's or herbaceous flavors and Cabernet Franc, which is obviously the source of it's pigment, or its color and a lot of its berry, fruit characteristics and jamminess. Here, I'll just briefly tell you about the other reds that are blended with Cabernet in the Bordeaux region. Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. And in the old days another variety called Carménère was sometime allowed. On the left bank, which means west of the river, Cabernet is often dominant in the blend with it being typically 70% of the blend and maybe 15% is Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot. In the right bank, further inland a little bit warmer climate, during the ripening season, Merlot can frequently be the dominant grape, 60-70% or more, with the remainder being made up of Cabernet and Cab Franc. Wherever Cabernet is used and whatever quantity, Cabernet always imparts important attributes to the wine. Frequently these so called Bordeaux red blends will not involve very much of Petit Verdot or Malbec usually just a smaller percentage. In the new world, someone came up with the term meritage, M-E-R-I-T-A-G-E to designate blends that are made from these classic Bordeaux reds. Cabernet has quite a distinctive flavor profile and is able to show it off almost whatever it's planted. The classic color of Cabernet is dark purplish, ruby red. The dominant aromatics are Cassis which is blackcurrant, black cherry, plum, there some herbaceousness of bell pepper, vegetal notes, especially if it's under-ripe or from very cool climate. Black olives are found, chocolaty notes, green bean, black pepper, sometimes licorice or anise, pencil cedar, and then earthy notes involving tea, leather can be found. From oak, we get sometimes a note of vanillin or smoky char. In a warmer or a very light growing condition, the grapes give us more jamminess and very ripe black fruit and red fruit flavors. If the grapes are over ripe, we might find touches of raisins or prunes or even fruit leather. On the palate, Cabernet usually always has moderate acidity, definitely always adequate. The tannins are firm, sometimes a little on the bitter side if the wine is too young or if the grapes were picked slightly under-ripe. Astringency can now be apparent and remember, we're talking about red wines here. So astringency again, is when the tannins in the wine bind with your saliva and make your mouth feel dry and scratchy. In a Cabernet, the assertive flavors and tannins have to in balance with each other for the wine to be well made or well put together. The French have a term, Bien charpente, which means well built or well structured, Cabernet has the firm and sometimes a slightly rough mouth feel that tells us it is a complete serious wine. And it begs for something rich and complex and savory on the food side. In this lesson, we discussed Cabernet Sauvignon. In the next lesson, we will turn our attention to Merlot.
