World of Wine Grapes: Muscat & Cabernet Sauvignon

This session of our “World of Wine Grapes” course (see HERE for more details) takes a look at an ancient grape and a popular grape.

Anywhere that grapes can be grown, chance are that someone has experimented with Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s a firm and fruity grape that can stand on its own very well but which also works in blends with other grapes – Merlot, Shiraz, Malbec, you name it. We’ll look at how it performs on its home turf of Bordeaux, and also taste examples from two New World countries.

We’ll also look at what could be the world’s oldest domesticated grape, Muscat. It’s a variety that produces some excellent sweet wines and we’ll try two, including an unctuous delight from Australia. But it’s also capable of some fascinating and aromatic dry wines, and we’ll kick of proceedings with one of those.

The tasting will include some cheese and crackers to compliment the wines and will include three examples each of a white grape and a red one, with the aim of demonstrating how the same basic raw material can be moulded in different ways, according to the place where the grapes grow and the desires of the winemakers.