Cabernet Sauvignon, the classic grape of

Bordeaux and probably the most famous red

wine grape in the world.

Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravelly soils where it produces wines of great longevity, elegance and structure with cassis and blackcurrant fruit that develop complex cedar wood and cigar box notes when fully mature.

It has now been adopted by the ‘New World’ where winemakers have made the grape famous by labeling their wines simply with the name of the grape. In California Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak; Australians have taken it to heart and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil and in South America where the long, warm ripening season and diverse soils realise the grape's true potentia.