By Gavin Trott
Special to NurseZone
Cabernet sauvignon is one of the world's finest red wine grapes. From Bordeaux to California and increasingly in Italy and even Chile, cabernet makes great red wines. Australia is no exception, making great Cabernet in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and the Hunter Valley.
Cabernet grapes tend to be thick skinned with bunches of small berries, and also only give moderate sized crops in general. This means that wines made from these grapes will have plenty of skins from which to get color, flavor and tannin, and have plenty of flavor as a finished wine.
Cabernet based wines can tend to be quite tannic when they’re young but age very gracefully with a softening of the tannin and the slow development of complexity, cedar and cigar box aromas. In regions where the grapes do not quite ripen there can be a capsicum or green bean character. This can add complexity to the wine but if more than a trace, it tends to distract from the experience and be a fault. Very ripe cabernets from warm climates tend to be less distinctively cabernet and develop chocolate and richer flavors. While delicious young, they do not cellar as well. The flavor profile in cabernets tends to be black and red currant, blackberry and cassis, with occasional hints of mint, chocolate and even regional earthiness.
Regional versions of this wine can be noticed and I will mention these below along with some recommended wines to try from each region.
Coonawarra. Consistently Australia’s best cabernets are made in the Coonawarra region of South Australia. This is a small cigar shaped region with red terra rossa soils over limestone, free draining and with a cool climate. The wines from here tend to be well balanced with very good cellar potential.
Barossa Valley.The warm climate here tends to produce richer dark and fleshy wines with typical chocolate hints. Blackberry more than blackcurrant is often the dominant fruit flavor.
Victoria. In central Victoria, there is often a mint/eucalyptus hint to these wines over classic cassis and blackcurrant.
Margaret River. This is a very good region for cabernet wines. They tend to have slight gravelly hints with red berry fruit and, usually great length and cellaring ability.
Hunter Valley. This valley is regional with reds that are an earthy style, whose regional nature continues as they age.
Gavin is the manager of the Australian Wine Centre (a large collection of affordable, rare and cult Australian wines) and hosts the very popular Auswine Forum (An online discussion forum about Australian wine).