Wine Education Made Easy: Cabernet Sauvignon Edition

How to Make People Hate Wine

Let me be perfectly honest with you: Learning wine can be a very painful process. Sommeliers (who are the perceived wine experts) spend a lot of time learning how each wine is made, who made it, how long it was aged in oak, what the great vintages are – you get the idea. Basically, it’s all the information you have zero interest in learning. You want to know if the wine tastes great, not whether the grapes were picked by hand or what the brix level is.

The problem is that when you sit down in a restaurant looking for a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and the sommelier appears, they can’t wait to share the laundry list of technical attributes for whatever bottles they have in their cellar. It’s mind numbing, it’s not much fun, and in most cases it’s not going to make you want to learn me.

I hate that.

Wine Education for Everyday Life

I’m all about wine education for everyday life – that means teaching people to love wine in a way that works for them. If you want to memorize vinification techniques and vintages that’s absolutely fine – I spend hours and hours every week doing exactly that, and you’re welcome to join me or check out one of my courses! – but if you just want to drink a great wine, then stop listening to the sommelier’s narrative and create your own guide to learn about Cabernet Sauvignon with this week’s Wine Craft.

(P.S. – This post is a continuation of a previous post I have done called, “Don’t Make Learning Wine So Difficult (Riesling Edition)” Check it out: WATCH ME)

Wine 101 – Cabernet Sauvignon From Region to Region

In the video above, I use two words to describe the signature characteristics of Cabernet Sauvignon from each of the six popular growing areas this varietal comes from. Hopefully this info will help you learn a little more about the connection between region and how a wine tastes, but more importantly I hope you’ll be better able to zero in on the bottle you (and your taste buds) like the most! Once you know that, picking out a bottle in a restaurant – no sommelier necessary! – will feel a lot easier.

Do you have a favorite Cabernet Sauvignon? Let me know in the comments and I’ll help you pair it with something equally delicious!

Top Six Cabernet Sauvignon By Region

• Bordeaux, France
  • Wine: Chateau Monfort Bellevue Medoc 2013 $17: BUY ME

• Central Valley, Chile
  • Wine: Domas Aura Cabernet Sauvignon 2011: $52: BUY ME

• Paso Robles, California
  • Wine: Broadside Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon $15: BUY ME

• Sonoma, California
  • Wine: Sebastiani Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 $20: BUY ME

• Napa Valley, California
  • Wine: Freemark Abbey Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 $42: BUY ME

• South Australia
  • Wine: Clarendon Hills Brookman Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $35: BUY ME

Cheers!

Mario

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