Cabernet Sauvignon
Bordeaux, and now everywhere warm enough
Blackcurrant, cedar and firm tannin. Thick skins give colour and structure, and it takes oak better than almost anything.
At harvest
Each bar drawn against the full range of all 54 varieties
Sugar
23-26 Brix
23 - 26
Titratable acidity
6-8 g/L
6 - 8
pH
3.4-3.7
3.4 - 3.7
Juice yield
0.65 L/kg
free run plus a gentle press
Sugar per kilogram
176 g
at 24.5 Brix, the midpoint
Fruit for 23 litres
35 kg
before racking losses
Potential alcohol
13.5-14.7%
from 1.103 fermented dry. A range, because conversion varies by strain
What it punishes
Picking on sugar alone. Cabernet reaches ripe Brix well before its tannins are ripe, and the result is a wine that is strong and green at once.
Made into
- Dry red
- Bordeaux blend
- Rose
Sulphite at this pH
At pH 3.55, protecting a red wine to 0.5 mg/L molecular SO2 takes 28 mg/L of free SO2. Work it out for your own reading.
Recipes on this site that use it
More vinifera red