Alter Egos: Three Alternatives To Cabernet Sauvignon
Exploring wine substitutes to please the curious cab loyalist.
Written by Steven Graf
Let us address a grape variety that is both heralded and derided; gulped and guarded; auctioned and counterfeited. One that you’ll find for sale at Sotheby’s, as well as in aisle 9. Cabernet Sauvignon: the two Frenchest words in your parents' vocabulary. The variety of the serious connoisseur, the grape for the budding amateur, our sin, our soul, Sau-vig-non.
Cabernet Sauvignon, or Wild Cabernet, is planted nearly everywhere that can sustain plant life (I've seen Cabernet vines planted in shallow marshes with French legal status). Hundreds of thousands of hectoliters of the stuff are fermented every year (often more!) in China, Argentina, Italy, France, South Africa, Chile, California, the list goes on. Across the board, the grape is beloved for its stability, consistency, and resilience — along with other, more arbitrary reasons.
Bordeaux, birthplace of the mercantile commodity, is also the birthplace of the chance crossing of Sauvignon Blanc (two more French words our ancestors like) and Cabernet Franc…yielding — you guessed it — Cab Sauv. In no time, this cheeky progeny proved its place in the great blending culture of the Bordelais, adding structure, tannin, beautiful red fruit, and serious aging potential to the region’s wines.
Eventually, the upstart Califonians looking to make a name for their young, climate-blessed wine region, went on to choose the great Behemoth Bordeaux as their foe. And as their weapon? Cabernet (among other things). But it didn’t stop there! As time went on, Italy's Supertuscans posted up 100-point scores, catching the attention of critics all around the world. New and old world vineyards chased the very same economic viability, and labels strewn with the banner 'Cabernet Sauvignon' found their place in every grocery store and liquor shop across the United States.
In my brief and illustrious retail career, I heard the name of this regal variety many times per day. And although a grape variety as noble as Cabernet can be a varied and beautiful thing in many guises, I soon discovered that the majority of our customers were looking for something properly of the California/Bordeaux style: full bodied, fruity, tannic, low acid, slightly sweet (even if they didn't know it), green, and chewy. Oh, and with "legs" [sic, loaded with alcohol].
All of that being said, my task today, as a writer, is to proffer a few alternatives to this mighty and ubiquitous variety that will work well next to your dad's favorite sailboat painting — but also spark joy and wonder in the curious drinker. In turn, I give you: three alternative varieties that share in some aspect of the Cab Sauv profile…without being, well, Cab Sauv.
Cabernet Franc
"You cheat," exclaims my astute reader. "Cabernet Franc is a parent to Cabernet Sauvignon, not an alter-ego! They even have the same Christian name!"
To which I say, "I don't care and I'm doing a great job." Why? Well, our discussion of Cabernet Franc allows us to talk about the very cool and interesting methoxypyrazine, which is an identifying and essential feature of both Cabernets as well as Sauvignon Blanc (the mom).
Methoxypyrazines are a set of nitrogen-based organic compounds that smell. What do they smell like? Green bell peppers, jalapenos, and sometimes asparagus (drinkers of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, I'm looking at you).
Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon both share a high amount of pyrazines and therefore typically give off a green aroma that balances nicely with the red fruits that are also common in both varieties. This character makes both Cabernets particularly versatile and delicious bistro wines. Think: the slightly green onion on your burger, the bitterness in your fatty cassoulet, or the cleansing bit in your paté en croute.
This green note is part of what makes the Cabernets such remarkable food wines, but there is another (perhaps more emblematic) trait that has Cabernet Sauvignon's proper place on the dinner table beside a steak: structure.
Suggested Wines
Jonathan Maunoury, “Mon Nom est Rouge”
Olga Raffault, “Chinon Les Picasses”
Tempranillo
Looking for a bold and powerful steak wine outside of France? The wines of the Rioja in Spain share a common purpose with the most famous Cabernets of the world: they provide a structured skeleton for a meal. They do this in two ways. One is with tannin; and the other is with oak (a subject for another day, but nevertheless, a major part of what both drinkers of Cabernet and Rioja enjoy about their wines).
Colloquially, we use the word tannin to describe whatever drying sensation a wine gives us. In general, these come from the phenolic character of the skins and seeds of the grapes. There are a lot of tannins in the skins and seeds of both Cabernet and Tempranillo, and famous wineries like to extract these tannins to make wines with a lot of dryness and bitterness.
But didn't I just say that Cabernet drinkers like a slightly sweet wine? Isn't dryness the opposite of sweetness? Yes! But there is very often so much tannin extracted from these very ripe varieties that residual sugar is hard to detect. In short, you’re so busy looking for moisture in your cheeks, that the sugar just slides past. Wow! Of course, a lot of this depends on the millions of choices made by winemakers in the cellar, but very many of the famous Tempranillos and Cabernet Sauvignons have this strong tannic structure in common.
Why would you want this? A few reasons. One is for aging. Young wines with lots of tannins are like sauces that have just started cooking. Their flavors haven't had time to meld and the spices and aromatics are still clashing. The micro-oxygenation of wine over many years through the narrow pores in the cork can cook it down, so to speak, making tannic wine formidable enough for years of "cooking."
But tannic wines, like the famous Tempranillos of the Rioja, are also great for adding structure to fatty dishes, or homogenous meals like a big Cote de Bouef. Tannins clean the palate for the next bite and add contrast to rich or bold flavors. There are few joys like a mature bottle of Tempranillo at a barbeque or with roasted meat and potatoes.
If you've not tried the wines of Lopez de Heredia, they’re arguably the benchmark for the region and a great example of a more traditional producer whose work in the vineyards and cellar predate modernization (i.e. natural before natural).
Suggested Wines
Alfredo Maestro, “Vina Almate”
Bodega Akutain, “Rioja Cosecha”
Sangiovese
Finally, we consider an item of Italian royalty, the heart of both Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino: Sangiovese. Of the more than 3,000 different varieties planted in Italy to make wine, Sangiovese is a strong contender for the most important variety in Italian wine. In that regard, it shares a lot with Cabernet: Its versatility, its boldness, its ability to age, its structure, its elegance, and also, its fame.
There are a number of easy comparisons to be made between big, modern Bordeauxs, or California Cabs, and regions like Brunello or Chianti — but both Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon share a less remarked-upon quality. Both have the potential to make very beautiful shapes with red fruit.
For me, maybe 90% of what makes a beautiful wine beautiful is the quality of fruit. That may sound like a truism, but when we talk about the modern wines coming from these fancy regions, there’s a great deal of process that can obscure the flavor of the fruit. My favorite Sangiovese, just like my favorite Cabernet, is about explosive red fruit: cherry, red current, blackberry, raspberry.
The best examples of each find a perfect balance of acidity, salinity, and sweetness, the way many wines do. But for these noble varieties, there is also the benefit of structure that gives complexity and variation with each taste. I encourage you to taste some less-traditional wines from Sangiovese, and then look for these beautiful red pictures in, say, Cabernet and Tempranillo (ideally from more classical wineries and regions).