Cabernet blanc is a white German and Swiss wine

grape variety This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, Zante currant, currant, sultana (grape), sultana). For a complete list of all grape species, including those unimp ...

that is a crossing of the French wine grape Cabernet Sauvignon and the hybrid grape

Regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

. Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC)
Cabernet blanc
' Accessed: October 22nd, 2021 The grape was bred by Swiss grape breeder

Valentin Blattner Valentin Blattner is a Swiss grape geneticist, grape breeder and winemaker of the Jura Mountains. Blattner has conducted very important research into finding disease-resistant grapes in viniculture since the 1980s, and is best known for developing ...

in 1991. Cabernet blanc has strong resistance to most grape disease including botrytis bunch rot, downy and

powdery mildew Powdery mildew is a fungus, fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of Ascomycota, ascomycete fungi in the order Erysiphales. Powdery mildew is one of the easier plant disea ...

and tends to produce loose clusters of small, thick-skinned grape berries which can hang on the vine late into the harvest season to produce dessert wines. Today the grape is found primarily in the Palatinate wine region of Germany with some experimental plantings in

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and the

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.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours'' pgs 148-149, 285-286 Allen Lane 2012 In France, in the Languedoc, Domaine La Colombette is heavily investing in PIWI grapes. Amongst others the Cabernet Blanc in their cuvée "Au Creux du Nid", is gaining wide acclaim. The grape is currently not being used for commercial wine production in the

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with American wines labeled as ''Cabernet blanc'' or ''White Cabernet'' instead being sweet pink-colored blush wines made from early pressing of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes similar to how White Zinfandel is produced from the red Zinfandel grape.J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 593 Oxford University Press 2006

Pedigree

Cabernet blanc is a hybrid crossing of the ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern ...

'' wine grape Cabernet Sauvignon and

. For a while the second parent was described as unknown disease-resistant variety. Masters of Wine Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and Swiss geneticist José Vouillamoz speculate that the identity of ''Resistenzpartner'' may be a complex hybrid that is a crossing of Silvaner with another grape that itself is a complex crossing with a Riesling x unknown ''Vitis vinifera'' and JS 12417 x

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parentage. This hypothesis is supported by fact, that Cabernet blanc contain resistance markers ''Rpv3'' and ''Ren3''.

, up to now the most successful resistant variety in Germany and also having ''Rpv3'' and ''Ren3'', was then identified and confirmed by 25 analysed loci as the missing link.

Viticulture

Cabernet blanc tends to produce loose clusters of small, thick-skinned grape berries. The vine is a very vigorous, highly disease and frost resistant variety. It has particularly strong resistance to fungal infections caused by powdery and downy mildew as well as botrytis bunch rot. It is, however, susceptible to the viticultural hazard of millerandage where the grape flowers do not get properly fertilized resulting in bunches having a mix of small, seedless berries and normal size berries. These small "shot berries" often add to the levels of

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and phenolic extract of the wine and may make it seem " unbalanced".

Wine regions

Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Hedge Vineyards

While Cabernet blanc was discovered in Switzerland and there are still limited plantings of the variety in that country, it is most widely planted in the German wine region of Palatinate in western Germany where there were of the grape in cultivation in 2007. Here the thick skin and high disease resistance of the variety lends itself well to the production of both dry and sweet late-harvest wines. Growers in Germany have submitted a request to put Cabernet blanc on the official list of registered grape varieties and, pending approval, plantings of the grape may increase in the country. Outside of Germany, Cabernet blanc is also found in the Netherlands were producers in

Achterhoek The Achterhoek (; ) is a cultural region and COROP area in the Eastern Netherlands. Its name (meaning "rear-corner") is geographically appropriate because the area lies in the easternmost part of the province of Gelderland and therefore in the e ...

and

Gelderland Gelderland ( , ), also known as Guelders ( ) in English, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands, located in the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Nethe ...

are experimenting with the variety. Limited plantings of the grape also exist in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. While there are American wines being marketed as "Cabernet blanc" or "White Cabernet", these wines are sweet pink-colored blush wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon rather than from true Cabernet blanc.

Australian Cabernet blanc

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, a golden-berried color mutation of Cabernet Sauvignon was discovered in a vineyard in the Langhorne Creek region of

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. This mutant, similar to the color mutation of

Pinot noir Pinot noir (), also known as Pinot nero, is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name also refers to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words fo ...

that yielded Pinot blanc, was named Shalistin and propagated by Cleggett Wines to produce light-red wine. The vine eventually mutated again to produce "whiter" berries that was used to produce a completely white wine that Cleggett marketed as "Cabernet blanc" with the first vintage released in 2002. This white wine was described as having the berry fruit flavors of a red Cabernet Sauvignon wine with earthy, tannic notes.Adam Lechmere '
First white 'Cabernet Sauvignon' released
'' ''Decanter'', May 14th, 2002 In 1989, a white-berried

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of Cabernet Sauvignon, named Cygne blanc, was discovered growing in a garden in

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that was planted next to a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard. Unlike Cabernet blanc and Shalistin, Cygne blanc is neither a crossing nor a white color mutation derived from a

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but rather a selfling that sprang from a seed of a Cabernet Sauvignon berry that fell on the ground and took root.

Styles

According to Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, Cabernet blanc produces white wine that have a flavor profile "somewhere between Riesling and Sauvignon blanc" with many of the aromas similar to Sauvignon blanc.

Synonyms

As a relatively recent hybrid, Cabernet blanc does not have many synonyms with only Blattner 91-26-1 and VB 91-26-1 recognized by the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) maintained by the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding.

References

{{Hybrid grape varieties White wine grape varieties Hybrid grape varieties