The low-down on Wine Varietals

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country. Cabernet for most of the 20th century was the world's most widely planted premium red wine grape until it was surpassed by Merlot in the 1990s. Its popularity is often attributed to the ease of cultivating, with the grape's thick skins and hardy vines being resistant to rot and frost, as well as the grape's consistency in presenting structure and flavors expressing the typical character of the variety.

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It believed to have originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced. The Chardonnay grape itself is very neutral, with many of the flavors commonly associated with the grape being derived from such influences as terroir and oak. It is vinified in many different styles, from the elegant, "flinty" wines of Chablis to rich, buttery Meursaults and New World wines with tropical fruit flavors. Chardonnay is an important component of many sparkling wines around the world, including Champagne.

Merlot

Merlot is a red wine grape that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. Merlot-based wines usually have medium body with hints of berry, plum, and currant. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot an ideal grape to blend with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon. This flexibility has helped to make it one of the most popular red wine varietals in the United States, Chile and recently Washington State.

Pinot noir

Pinot noir is a red wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines produced predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French words for "pine" and "black" alluding to the varietals' tightly clustered dark purple pine cone shaped bunches of fruit. Pinot noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler regions, but the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine, given it the "heartbreak grape" label.

Zinfandel

Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California wine vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in the 'heel' of Italy (Puglia). It is typically made into a robust red wine, but in the USA a semi-sweet rosé (blush-style) wine called White Zinfandel has six times the sales of the red wine. The taste of the red wine depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruits like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas such as the Napa Valley, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas such as Sonoma County, and in wines made from the earlier-ripening Primitivo clone.

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a green-skinned grape variety which originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape gets it name from the French word sauvage ("wild") and blanc ("white") due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in South West France. It is now planted in many of the world's wine regions, producing a crisp, dry, and refreshing white varietal wine. Conversely, the grape is also a component of the famous dessert wines from Sauternes and Barsac.

Pinot Gris

Pinot Gris is a white wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot noir grape, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name ("gris" meaning "gray" in French) but the grape can have a brownish pink to black and even white appearance. The clone of Pinot Gris grown in Italy is known as Pinot Grigio and is normally dry and crisp.

Syrah

Syrah is grown in many countries and is primarily used to produce powerful red wines, which enjoy great popularity in the marketplace, relatively often under the synonym Shiraz. Aroma characters can range from violets to berries (usually dark as opposed to red), chocolate, espresso and black pepper. With time in the bottle these "primary" notes are moderated and then supplemented with earthy or savory "tertiary" notes such as leather and truffle. "Secondary" flavor and aroma notes are those associated with several things, including winemakers' practices (such as oak barrel and yeast regimes), and land (terroir) qualities.