"In their youth, these are monolithic, muscular, powerhouse wines," says Coppi. "It is a an absolutely stunning wine with the blend consisting of predominantly cabernet sauvignon along with merlot and a splash of cabernet franc."Īs is the case with any serious Bordeaux, some patience is necessary if you want the wine to express its true potential. "This famous estate can trace its winemaking roots back to 1811, and was classified as a second growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, making it one of the elite producers of the region," says Coppi. Whether it's a genre-defining hip-hop album or a seminal Hitchcock film, sometimes you just need to go back to the old-school offerings to make sense of the new stuff-and it's hard to imagine a more classic interpretation of cabernet sauvignon than Château Cos d’Estournel. Region: Saint-Estèphe, Bordeaux, France | ABV: 13.5% | Tasting Notes: Cassis, Graphite, Chocolate-covered cherries "Wait about five years before opening, as the wine benefits highly from a little time to integrate in the bottle." "The result is a silky, medium- to full-bodied wine bursting with notes of ripe black cherry, blueberry, cassis, warm baking spices, cedar, black pepper, menthol, and cocoa," says Claire Coppi, a Certified Sommelier and a cast member on SOMM TV. Only the second winery to be established in Washington's prolific Walla Walla Valley, family-run Woodward Canyon has been churning out delicious reds since 1981, and their “Artist Series” cabernet is a blend of grapes sourced from some of the most highly regarded vineyards in the entire state, including the lengendary Sagemoor Vineyard. Washington State might seem like an odd place to cultivate a big, rich, warmth-loving red grape like cabernet-after all, isn't Seattle rainy about ten months out of the year? Maybe so, but once you get east of the Cascade mountain range, the climate is considerably drier and sunnier, yielding one of the nation's premier growing regions for hearty reds. Region: Washington | ABV: 14.5% | Tasting Notes: Black cherry, Menthol, Baking spices Nothing wrong with popping it on a random weeknight, however with its sub-$20 price tag, it's the type of indulgence you can come back to again and again. The 2019 "Cs" cabernet sauvignon is already making fans with its bold and pleasing characteristics of dark fruit, violet, pipe tobacco, and pencil lead, but the wine is sturdy enough that it should continue to evolve and add finesse over the next decade at minimum. Substance, one of his newest lines, comprises single-variety wines that are fermented naturally and bottled unfiltered and unfined. Within fifteen years of his first vintage, he had been named Winemaker of the Year by both Wine Enthusiast and Food & Wine, and his recognizable black-and-white labels were gracing shelves in all fifty states and a couple dozen countries abroad. Winemaker Charles Smith, a former band manager who spent the first few years of his wine career selling his bottles out of the back of a van, has been churning out quality Washington State wine since 1999. Region: Columbia Valley, Washington | ABV: 14% | Tasting Notes: Blueberry, Violet, Pencil lead With so many bottles to choose from, we've compiled a list of some of the best cabernet sauvignons from around the world-from budget bottles to pair with Wednesday night dinner, to inimitable classics hailing from Bordeaux-like our top choice the 2016 Château Pape Clément Pessac-Léognan-to culty once-in-a-lifetime indulgences. Bold and sturdy, with satisfying dark fruit flavors and big tannic character, it’s a crowd-pleasing favorite that's almost never absent from a restaurant wine list (and, more often than not, will be among the priciest offerings on the menu). More important than its ease of cultivation, however, is the fact that cabernet sauvignon is simply delicious. A recent study revealed that it's now the world's most widely-planted grape variety, up from fourth place as recently as 1990 (when boxed wines and jug wines made of lesser varieties held significantly more market share).īesides consumer preference shifting toward so-called "varietal" wines, another cause for cabernet sauvignon's meteoric rise is that it’s relatively easy to grow the grape berries are known for their thick skin and natural ability to flourish in a wide range of climates. From its ancestral homeland in southwest France, to the sun-drenched vineyards of California and Washington, to emerging footholds in Tuscany, Australia, and South Africa, cabernet sauvignon stakes a fair claim as the most beloved wine grape in the world.
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