“It’s fantastic! A very good Cabernet Sauvignon”. During the latest Verona Opera Wine, we recorded this comment by an American taster, who had just learnt about 1997 Carpineto Farnito Riserva, produced in fact with pure Cabernet-Sauvignon grapes. This red grape variety is very well known around the world and like Chardonnay, finds its origins in French Burgundy. Just like its white grape relation, it well adapts to any climate, from the sub and trans-Alpine intense cold to the scorching heat of the Italian south. This feature has ensured its large-scale cultivation throughout Peninsula, from Lombardy to Sicily.
Life is all about flavour, and Cabernet-Sauvignon (often used assembled with Cabernet Franc and Merlot grapes) won’t disappoint the gourmands’ expectations. The wines produced from these grapes are suitable to be aged for lengthy periods. They are subjected to a long maceration in oak barrels which helps the wine release all its intense violet and sorb bouquet, a perfect match for its intense ruby red colour and its strong, richly tannic, flavour. Proof of its unique bouquet are the DOC and DOCG labels of this grape, from the majestic Tuscan Sassicaia to Valdadige Trentino, to Veneto’s excellence, such as Merlara and Piave.
Once again, the origins of its name are lost in the mists of time, somewhere back in ancient Rome. Others however, argue that the term Cabernet-Sauvignon comes from vitis caburnica, described for the first time by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia: a plant that was cultivated mainly in Greece and that produced an intense strong-bodied wine, much loved by the Romans (traditionally drunk by adding water). However, these are only assumptions: what we are certain about are Cabernet-Sauvignon’s taste and smell, together with its bouquet and flavour.
