Who’s your daddy Cab Sauv?

Who’s your daddy? Who, indeed

Like Syrah, we regard the Cabernet Sauvignon wine grape as also being ancient, noble and aristocratic. Its world-wide ubiquity is a testament to its success as the grape variety, attracting devotees who kneel and genuflect before its holy altar. With nearly endless potential for aging, with its high degree of adaptability, and with its attractive black currant complexion, Cabernet Sauvignon, grape and wine, is celebrated the world over, winning favor in every wine circle. Our affection for the variety often compels us to refer to it with great familiarity, even giving it an abbreviated name, all despite the fact that before the year 1690, no single grape of this variety ever existed.

What?

Our beloved, ancient and noble Cab Sauv has not always been a mainstay of Bordeaux, that bastion of French aristocracy and home of the many well-storied chateaux? Put quite simply, no.

Cabernet Sauvignon, as the French once surmised then soon forgot, is in fact the prodigy of two genuinely ancient grape varieties, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. The airborne pollen of the former did fertilize a bloom of the latter, in a natural cross-pollination. Alas, until the early twentieth century, Cabernet-Sauvignon (complete with hyphen) was the preferred spelling to convey the suspicion of its status as a botanical hybrid, an inter-species cross, a viticultural love-child.

Truly amazing is the fact that one seed in one Sauvignon Blanc grape was the Genesis of the first Cabernet Sauvignon plant from which all others have sprung. All of which was due to the neighboring Cabernet Franc vineyard, a favorable wind and an opportune moment to cross the property line. The chances of the hybridized seed making it to a fruiting plant without being tilled out of the vineyard row are astounding, let alone the chances of anyone analyzing the fruit for its enological aptitudes to reveal its superior qualities. The tell-tale evidence was that the errant vine yielded red grapes in a vineyard that otherwise bore white grapes. By 1720, it was a leading grape variety in all of Bordeaux and its surrounding wine estates, and was certainly well-established there by the end of the 18th century!

With the advent of DNA “fingerprinting” technology, a veritable grapevine paternity test was ordered in 1997, with Drs Meredith and Bowers of UC-Davis conducting the investigation. They proved conclusively what was always suspected but had never before been proven: Cabernet Franc, together with Sauvignon Blanc, was a parent of Cabernet Sauvignon.

So, Cab Sauv, who is your Daddy?

The male Cab Franc pollen crossed the fence to pollinate the Sauv Blanc flower, so he is the father. Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, father and son, are reunited in the 2004 Cave B Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve to commemorate and celebrate the creation of a world-renowned prodigy.

Wine and Vine Perspectives in Syrah – Volume 1

The grape variety Syrah is one of the oldest and noblest of all red wine varieties. It has its home in France, where it is the only red grape permissible in the northern Rhône Valley appellations of Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, St Joseph and Cornas. Historical records exist that trace this sturdy grape back to the 5^th Century AD, and since that time, it has resisted genetic mutation, drought, and the whims of the wine market. Syrah migrated to Australia in the 1840s, where the world of Academia dubbed it Shiraz. This was to pay homage to the vine’s once theoretical birthplace, the town of Shiraz in Persia, the present-day Iran. From Australia, Syrah spread to other locales in the southern hemisphere, where it is still referred to as Shiraz. Whether Syrah or Shiraz, this noble variety is the result of a naturally occurring botanical hybridization of the very obscure Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche varieties.

Syrah went largely unnoticed in the United States until 1968, when Syrah from France was planted at the Joseph Phelps Vineyards near St Helena, California. Syrah at the time was as esoteric as any variety could be, as consumers gravitated toward wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. All it took was time and awareness, and Washington was soon to be home to this ancient grape variety. In 1985, Syrah was first planted for David Lake, a Master of Wine and winemaker at Columbia Winery in Woodinville. Michael Sauer of Red Willow Vineyard in Wapato can lay claim to the oldest planting of Syrah in Washington, now 24 years old, and a direct descendant of the clone of Syrah found at Joseph Phelps. It was twelve years later that Syrah had its day in the Sun, when a Walla Walla Valley Syrah garnered the Grand Award at the Seattle Enological Society annual tasting in 1987, a year that witnessed five producers each crafting a unique expression of the variety. As a varietal category, Syrah rapidly arrived in Washington, and at this writing, there are over 60 notable producers of Syrah in the state, some releasing multiple bottlings of the dark, nearly black wine.

Syrah has, as its best attribute, the great ability to respond uniquely to the environment in which it is grown, yielding a fruit composition that is specifically expressive of a particular site. It has a peppery spiciness in the wines made from it, and devotees of Syrah like to discern whether it is black or white pepper that is rolling around in their mouths. Blackberry jam, black licorice and ripe plum are layered onto its piquancy that is typically exhibited in a Washington Syrah, but don’t expect every Syrah to have all things in equal measure. This magical proportion is extremely site-specific, making all Syrahs a true product of their surroundings, and ensuring that this sage variety is always an interesting reflection of terroir, the earthly variables that govern the exact complexion of wines.

Find a Syrah from any Washington producer, and one could make a wager that it will be a delightful addition to any meal. It is at once a great accompaniment to al fresco lunches of coppacola salami and Gorgonzola cheese, to peppercorn tri-tip, to fusilli topped with a spicy, Italian-sausage red sauce. Try a top-sirloin medallion atop a buttered slice of baguette, with softened Roquefort placed between them, pair it with a sip of Syrah, and you’ll be a devotee of Syrah, too!