Cabernet Sauvignon

The world's best known of the red wine grapes, and the most planted. It is the main grape on Bordeaux's left bank, but has found to grow particularly well in Tuscany, California, Chile, Coonawarra and Western Australia, and plenty of places in between. Blackcurrant is the dominant aroma (which comes from a family of flavour compounds called methoxypyrazines that are found in all Sauvignon varieties, as well as grass, nettles, kiwis and blackcurrant leaves!), but after a big ageing in oak and in the bottle you get all sorts of delicious flavours that can develop like cigar box, cedar or tobacco.