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 also well planted further north, as far 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.
Emerging Ukrainian wine region in central Ukraine in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast along the Dnipro river, black-earth (chernozem) soils, continental climate tempered by the river, small confidential estates. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot as signature reds: structured with blackcurrant, plum, cedar and a herbaceous note. Saperavi dense, Pinot Noir ethereal, Cabernet Franc and Odessa Black as reds. Aromatic Bianca, Kvitkovy and Muscat Ottonel as lively whites.
