Today in Gear: April 28, 2017 Great Slip-On Shoes for Summer The Best Watches to Take into the Backcountry The Right Fixed Blade Knife Your 7 Essential Apps of 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is the alpha daddy of wine varietals. It’s big, bold and everywhere. It’s the main grape in Bordeaux blends (at least on the left bank of the Garonne estuary), and, as a result, it’s been a strong player in the history of California winemaking, given that Napa Valley winemakers have historically looked to Bordeaux as a primary reference point. Common tasting notes for a traditional “Cab” are black currant (or cassis), plum and cherry, with the cool, herbaceous quality of eucalyptus. And because of its natural, full-bodied intensity, the wine is often paired alongside big food flavors, particularly the steak dinner. Commonly, the association of Cabernet to meat comes from habit. But it turns out there’s some sense to the madness too. “Meat is a quick reference point with Cabs, and I think its a valid one,” says Lorena Ascenios, the head buyer at New York City’s Astor Wines & Spirits.

“You’re pairing two like things that just work really well together. Cabernet Sauvignon also caters to the American palate, which craves something obvious, as opposed to subtle.” Matthew LaSorsa, the proprietor of Brooklyn’s Heights Chateau, agrees. “Every wine sits on a frame,” he says. “It’s got its fruit, its complexity and its acidity. A really good steak, on the other hand, has marble — that’s fat. Cabernet’s high acidity balances fat, giving you that wonderfully interesting fleshiness in steak.” For Marco Pasanella, the proprietor of Pasanella & Son Vitners downtown, Cab’s “not your only choice, but it does makes sense,” he says. “You want a wine with cojones. And the more raw the steak, the more umph you want in your wine.” To take out the guesswork, and help avoid blank stares at your next visit to the wine store, these industry experts have weighed in with their favorites across a range of price points. “I always like throwing in something incredibly inexpensive into a list of recommendations because I think it over delivers.

This wine from Argentina has a richness and a lot of fruit, but not a lot of those classic cassis notes. Also, this isn’t a wine you age. You buy it by the case, you have friends over, you open it with take out. It’s a statement, and it’s delicious for what it is.” — LA “This Cabernet has got to be one of the great steals of the wine world. It’s a deeply structured, full-bodied Cabernet that’s characterized by cassis and plum notes. The wood is a little strong, so there are some oak tannins in the back. But there’s a lot of wine here for $15.” — ML “This wine is in a very juicy camp of Cabernets. The archetypal California cabernet is muscular, and it’s big and it’s brawny. This one is more fruity — it’s not going to knock you out after a glass. Though not as big as other Cabernets, Drovers makes up for it in friendliness. We can’t keep it in stock, it’s like crack!” — MP “This is a Cabernet-based Bordeaux from Graves — ‘graves’ as in gravelly soil.

Back in the day, Graves was really the epicenter of old Bordeaux. I like this one because it’s 2010, a good year. The best Cabernets have a structure and an acidity. When they’re young, they’re considered ‘tight,’ which means that the flavors aren’t totally integrated. Over time, like here, stuff starts to meld together and those big flavors don’t stand aside as much. beer and wine cafeAt $20, it’s a steal.” — MPcheap red wine singapore “This wine comes from a small artisanal producer in Bordeaux — it’s a husband-and-wife team, and they just have a few hectares. best everyday red table wineThey make two wines, that’s it. best kind of ice wine

You get some spicy notes here, some cassis. There’s an aspect of minerals, which is hard to describe, but it comes from the soils [in Bordeaux]. You don’t get an overt expression of new oak, since that can overtly change the profile of the wine; they use older oak, which can be a beautiful thing. The wine is about the fruit, the grape. It’s an expression of what Cabernet actually tastes like, and 2009 was an excellent vintage.” — LAbest prices for rose wine “This wine comes from east of the Cascades, so during the day, the grapes are exposed to a deep, intense heat. best wine areas spainThis is an oak-bodied Cabernet that has a lot of plum and black currant characteristics; best medium dry white wineit’s big and full, but it’s got some roundness without being overripe. cheap good red wine singapore

It balances structure and acid at the back side so it’s actually quite brilliant for the price. If you were looking at California for a similar kind of depth of complexity, you’d be paying upwards of $50.” — ML “Even though this wine is $50, you get a lot of wine for the money. It’s not ranked in the top classification of Bordeaux wines, so there’s a value for the quality. best chicken and wine recipeThe main difference between this and the Chateau d’Archambeau for $20 is the intensity, the length — you could say the volume is turned up here. The wines are cousins, but this is the Ferrari to the Corvette.” — MP “Heitz is in the lower part of Napa, a part of the region influenced by winds from San Pablo Bay. When Cabernet is grown in a cooler climate, the taste tends to be more “bing cherry” rather than “black currant.” The wine is Bordeaux-esque, but it has maintained a California statement without being overly ripe, overly intense or over-oaked.