Gros Cabernet

Gros Cabernet is a red wine variety . To distinguish it from the small-berry grape variety Cabernet Franc , the thick-berry variety Gros Cabernet ( French : thick Cabernet ) was named. Despite its proximity to the Cabernet family, the variety is rarely found in the Gironde department (→ viticulture in France ). In the municipality of Saint-Vincent-de-Pertignas in particular , there are still some vines. Pierre Galet also reports on a smaller plantation near Adelaide in the state of South Australia (→ Viticulture in Australia ).

In 2009, J. M. Boursiquot from the ENSAM Institute and Carol Meredith from the University of California, Davis performed a DNA analysis. The evaluation of the results showed that the well-known Carménère grape variety is a natural cross between the Gros Cabernet and Cabernet Franc varieties . The old Gros Cabernet variety, for its part, was created by crossing the Fer Servadou and Txakoli varieties .

Ampelographic varietal characteristics

In ampelography , the habitus is described as follows:

• The shoot tip is open. It has very woolly whitish hair and a very light carmine-red tinge. The young leaves are woolly hairy and slightly reddish spotted (anthocyanin spots), but less pronounced than the Cabernet Franc variety.
• The leaves are five-lobed and slightly deeply indented. The stem bay is lyren-shaped open. The blade is bluntly serrated. The teeth are very tight compared to the grape varieties and smaller than those of Cabernet Franc. The leaf surface (also called blade) slightly blistered. In autumn the leaves only redden slightly, mainly in the area of ​​the leaf tips.
• The mostly conical to cylindrical grape is sometimes shouldered, small and almost dense. The round berries are small to medium-sized and bluish-black in color. The peel of the berry is extremely thin but firm.

The grapes ripen in mid to late October, physiologically about 15 to 20 days later than those of the Gutedel .

Gros Cabernet as a synonym for other varieties

Since the independent grape variety has received little attention so far, the B-term Gros Cabernet is more known as a synonym for other varieties. Mainly in Australia, the Trousseau grape variety is also known as Gros Cabernet. In ancient records, even the Cabernet Franc grape is called that.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Merlot, la découverte du chaînon manquant (in French) ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ [1]

literature

• Pierre Galet : Dictionnaire encyclopédique des cépages . Hachette, Paris 2000, ISBN 978-2-01-236331-1 .