Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot: Bordeaux's red grapes

The three are related:

• Cabernet Franc, oldest, probably from the Basque Country, long grown in Bordeaux and Loire.

• Cabernet Sauvignon, natural Cabernet Franc–Sauvignon Blanc cross, identified by geneticists at the University of California in 1997. It happened spontaneously, probably in the 17th century.
• Merlot, another Cabernet Franc child, with an almost-vanished Charente grape. Its name may derive from merle, blackbird, fond of ripe berries.

They share berry and leaf notes, and green pepper when underripe.

Small berries, thick skins and large seeds mean colour and tannins. Late-ripening, warmth-loving, it stays green in cool years.

Aromas: signature blackcurrant, blackberry and cherry; cedar, graphite, pencil shavings, tobacco, mint and eucalyptus; green pepper in cool years.

Palate: dense, astringent and acidic. Often hard young, tannins soften with age, adding leather, cigar box and truffle.

France: Médoc, Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Margaux and Saint-Estèphe, and Graves, on Left Bank gravel. Famous 1855 First Growths are Cabernet-dominant blends.

Larger berries, thinner skins, ripening two weeks earlier. It likes water-retaining clay.

Aromas: plum, cherry, raspberry, blackcurrant; chocolate, cocoa, coffee and sometimes truffle; oak adds vanilla.

Palate: soft, rounded, velvety, less acidic and tannic. Enjoyable after two to three years; the best live decades.

France: Bordeaux's most planted red, covering over half its red vineyards. Main sites are Right Bank Saint-Émilion and Pomerol. Famous near-pure Pomerol Merlots are among the world's most expensive. Also grown in the Southwest and Languedoc.

Cabernet Franc often remains in the shadows, although demand is substantial: 6,469 Russian-language searches per month.

Flavour: raspberry, redcurrant, violet, graphite, green pepper and leaves; softer tannins than Cabernet Sauvignon, fresh acidity, lighter and more fragrant.

France:

• Bordeaux, third blend component, especially Saint-Émilion, where some great châteaux use more than Merlot.
• Loire, the main red in Chinon, Bourgueil and Saumur-Champigny. Light to medium, good chilled to 14–15 °C.

Read “Sancerre and Vouvray”.

Single-grape wines are rare, for three reasons:

1. Weather insurance: changeable ocean climate, early Merlot helping cool years, Cabernet warm dry ones.
2. Balance: Cabernet the skeleton, tannin, acidity and longevity; Merlot the flesh, soft fruit; Franc aroma and freshness.
3. Different soils: Cabernet on gravel, Merlot on clay, each château with varied plots.

Small amounts of Petit Verdot, colour and spice, Malbec, body, and sometimes old Bordeaux Carmenère, now known through Chile, complete blends.

Read “Choosing Bordeaux wine”.

This is one of the questions people ask most often. There is no single correct answer: it depends on your own taste and on the occasion for which you are choosing a bottle:

• Merlot for soft fruity reds without sharp astringency, dinner tonight, or guests unused to dry red.

• Cabernet Sauvignon for rich, dense serious wine, steak or lamb, or ageing.
• Blend for both, as in most Bordeaux.

Read “Wine with fish and meat”.

• Temperature: 16–18 °C; Loire Franc 14–15 °C. A warm room's 22–24 °C is too hot.

• Decanter: young Cabernet and aged Bordeaux benefit from one to two hours' air, softening tannin.
• Glass: large, tall, broad Bordeaux glass.

1. French labels name place: Médoc, Pauillac, Margaux for Cabernet; Saint-Émilion, Pomerol for Merlot; Chinon, Bourgueil for Franc.
2. Southern and New World wines name the grape.
3. Age: simple Merlot two to four years; Left Bank Cabernet older, or wait at home.
4. Price: basic Bordeaux €8–15; good Médoc and Saint-Émilion €20–50; classified châteaux from €50.

Both spread from Bordeaux to almost every wine country:

France is restrained: less ripe fruit and sweet oak, more freshness, earth and evolving tannin. New World is easier on first sip; Bordeaux more interesting after ten years.

• Left Bank: 1855 Médoc First Growths, Cabernet-dominant, benchmark cassis, cedar, graphite and endless length.

• Pomerol: famous near-pure Merlot on blue clay, costing thousands of euros, with vineyards smaller than some holiday garden plots.
• Saint-Émilion: one Premier Grand Cru Classé A blends more Cabernet Franc than Merlot, proving the third grape's greatness.

Drink everyday Bordeaux and Merlot within three to five years. Classified Médoc and top Saint-Émilion and Pomerol can keep 10–20 years at 12–14 °C, horizontal and dark.

To understand the difference, buy three wines and compare them at home in the same tasting:

1. Médoc or Pauillac, Left Bank Cabernet.
2. Saint-Émilion or Pomerol, Right Bank Merlot.
3. Chinon or Bourgueil, Loire Franc.

Open the bottles an hour beforehand and pour a little of each at 16–17 °C. Serve them with a piece of steak, some mushrooms and Comté cheese. You will taste how gravel and clay, an ocean-influenced climate and the Loire valley each change the wine. Afterwards, you will be able to choose by place in a shop, rather than relying on an attractive label.

Once important in Bordeaux, Malbec was rarely replanted after 1956 frosts. It became famous in Cahors and Argentina, dark and dense, plum and violet. Very late Petit Verdot adds a few percent for colour, spice and violet.

Russian and other shops stock bottles from Kuban, Crimea, Moldova, Chile and Spain. Same grapes, different climates and styles. Some clues:

• Dry red: below 4 g/l sugar for genuinely dry wine.

• Cabernet-Merlot: a Bordeaux-like blend, without place indication.
• Vintage: basic young wines within two to three years.
• Price: very cheap Cabernet can be green and harsh from underripe grapes.

To understand their homeland, try Bordeaux Supérieur or Médoc: often fresher and more complex at similar prices.

1. Serving warm-apartment room temperature.
2. Pouring young Cabernet immediately. Let it breathe.
3. Pairing Cabernet with fish. Tannins give metallic flavours.
4. Thinking Merlot is simple. Great Pomerol is Merlot.
5. Confusing red Cabernet Sauvignon and white Sauvignon Blanc.

Taste both banks, Médoc and Saint-Émilion, comparing Cabernet and Merlot side by side. → Bordeaux wine tour · Bordeaux and ocean itinerary · Choosing Bordeaux wine