Wines made from Cabernet franc grapes of Sao Paulo
Discover the best wines made with Cabernet franc as a single variety or as a blend of Sao Paulo.
Cabernet Franc is one of the oldest red grape varieties in Bordeaux. The Libourne region is its terroir where it develops best. The terroirs of Saint-Emilion and Fronsac allow it to mature and develop its best range of aromas. It is also the majority in many blends. The very famous Château Cheval Blanc, for example, uses 60% Cabernet Franc. The wines produced with Cabernet Franc are medium in colour with fine tannins and subtle aromas of small red fruits and spices. When blended with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, it brings complexity and a bouquet of aromas to the wine. It produces fruity wines that can be drunk quite quickly, but whose great vintages can be kept for a long time. It is an earlier grape variety than Cabernet Sauvignon, which means that it is planted as far north as the Loire Valley. In Anjou, it is also used to make sweet rosé wines. Cabernet Franc is now used in some twenty countries in Europe and throughout the world.
Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth-largest in the world. It has a sizable wine industry, but is probably best known in global markets for spirits, and in particular Cachaça. With roughly 83,000 hectares (205,000 acres) of Vineyard">Vineyard, it ranks just behind its near-neighbors Argentina and Chile in terms of acreage under vine. Only a small proportion (about 10 percent) of these acres are planted with Vitis vinifera vines, however this large acreage does not translate into large volumes of quality wine.