Wines made from Cabernet franc grapes of Rheingau
Discover the best wines made with Cabernet franc as a single variety or as a blend of Rheingau.
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.
Rheingau is one of the most important of Germany's 13 Anbaugebiete wine regions. However it is far from the biggest; with 3,076 hectares (7,600 acres) of Vineyard">Vineyards documented in 2012, its output is around one tenth of that from the Pfalz and Rheinhessen regions. Located on the Rhine a 20-minute drive west of Frankfurt, the -gau suffix denotes that it was once a county of the Frankish Empire. The classic Rheingau wine is a DryRiesling with pronounced Acidity and aromas of citrus fruits and smoke-tinged minerality – typically more "masculine" than its equivalent from the Mosel.