Spotlight Varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot
By Rachel Brown
Our last Spotlight Varietals article touched on Vitis Vinifera and our first two big-name grapes: Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. I thought they were a good jumping-off point to get into their child grape, Cabernet Sauvignon, and its close cousin, Merlot!
Arguably the most famous grapes for winemaking, these two have a long history and are usually found quite snuggly together in the glass. Their origins, yet again, lie in the heartland of France.
Cabernet Sauvignon is championed in the Bordeaux region. With its thick, dark skins, the grape thrives in the cooler gravel-based soils of the region that are rich in minerals. Typically, the grape makes up half of the blend. The rest of the blend must be comprised of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, or Petite Verdot. With its sturdy tannins, Cab Sauv provides tons of structure and depth. These tannins also will give the wine a huge advantage for aging, with most wines (in a good harvest year) able to cellar for ten years plus! Fun fact: tannin is integral to cellaring!
While Cab Sauv started its rise to fame in France, it wasn’t until the Judgment of Paris in 1976 that it hit its true growth spurt and took over California winemaking! The Judgement of Paris was a blind tasting between Stag’s Leap Cabernet and the top Chateaux in Bordeaux. The California Cab took the cake and the rest was history.
As a standalone varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its dark color, full-body, and higher alcohol content (ranging from 12.5%-15% ABV depending on the location). The grape is rich with pyrazines, dark fruits like plums, black cherries, and currant with notes of cedar and graphite. Barrel aging compliments the grape well and can enhance some of these natural tasting notes. It's one of the most popular varietals in the world—and for good reason. There are dozens of regions that produce high-quality Cabernet, ranging from Chile to Australia, Spain, and China!
Pair your Cabernet with rich beef-based dishes that are savory and higher in fat. Try it with a charred burger topped with gruyere, mushroom stroganoff, or ribeye steak.
Moving into Cab’s counterpart and close cousin, Merlot, there’s a lot to be said! In French, the name translates to ‘Little Blackbird’. This grape is a close second in popularity to Cabernet and is known to be soft, elegant, and ripe. It does have thinner skins, but a large advantage to that is that the grape usually ripens up to two weeks earlier!
In a blind tasting, Cab and Merlot are easy to confuse. They share some very similar characteristics, but that fact made it a no-brainer when it came to blending the two. The big contender to find out the difference in the glass? Merlot tends to be slightly orange on the rim! (Comment from Noelle: And the tannins are usually more in the medium range than the tannins in Cab!)
It’s thought that the bright idea to blend the two grapes together came about in the 1700s by a winemaker in Bordeaux. Since then, Merlot only grew in popularity. Today, the largest acreage of it still resides in France. When it arrived in the mid-nineteenth century in California, the grape became popular to produce as a single varietal. With its soft and seductive notes of black cherry, plum, vanilla, and cedar, its popularity began to grow. Barrel aging also suits Merlot very well and finished wines usually sit with medium levels of acid and tannin. (These will be our main difference between Cabernet and Merlot.)
The alcohol can remain on the modest side, averaging around 13.5%-14.5% depending on the region. Warmer areas like Chile and Argentina will be at the top half of the ABV.
It wasn’t until the movie Sideways came out where Paul Giamatti had one of the most damning and damaging lines for the grape: “I’m not drinking any f*cking Merlot!”
After that, sales tanked. Merlot became undesirable and avoided. Many winemakers would label their reds as ‘blends’ to avoid lack of sales. The damage lasted for several years and it hasn’t been until recently that there has been a resurgence for good Merlot.
The grape is lovely on its own or blended. I, myself, love a good glass of Merlot either with food or on its own. If you’re looking for a pairing, try it with roast duck or turkey with fresh herbs and lavender to pull out any herbaceous notes the wine has. Especially around the holidays, Merlot shines for any feast!
These two grapes are worth knowing and worth drinking. With their widespread popularity, there are hundreds of regions that produce these grapes as blends together or as standalone varieties. I would recommend trying as many as you can to see why, exactly, these two are the ultimate dream team!