Q. Cabernet Sauvignon is a cross between which grapes?
A. Cabernet Sauvignon is a hybrid: it’s a cross between red Cabernet Franc and white Sauvignon Blanc.
It’s hard to pinpoint the OG grape of grapes, but ampelographers, or people who study grapes, posit that the earliest and first specimen was a black grape (i.e., red grapes), and the first white grape was a mutation from this. Table grapes and wine grapes are two different categories and don’t perform well doing the work of their counterpart: a table grape can technically be fermented but doesn’t have sufficient acidity, thick enough skins, flavor, or other components to be made into a very good wine; and wine grapes can be eaten raw but are small, contain seeds, have thick skin, and the high acidity that will make your mouth pucker. Wine Folly has a great overview on the differences between the two. We couldn’t really find out what happens if you cross Merlot with Malbec (sorry! We’d love to know what happens if you’ve experimented). If all this scientific information made you feel wrathful, feel free to drink some sugar water Welch’s.
Cabernet Sauvignon plays nice with others and is made into red blends around the world. Try it in this expressive, juicy blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Carmenère in our Red Wine Mini-Pack from the Wine365 Shop:
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