Paso Robles’s growing list of top-scoring and award-winning Cabernet Sauvignon wines are made up of several historic strains, or “clones,” of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape. The 2016 CABs of Distinction Media & Trade event in April will include an expert panel that will help attendees understand the unique clones used in the region’s signature wine.
The Paso Robles CAB Collective has long understood that great wine begins with great farming—and great farming begins with choosing the best wine grape clones.
Although the word “clone” may evoke science fiction flicks and research laboratories, wine grape clones are created in the field by simply taking cuttings from a mother vine, replanting them, and then repeating the process until a farmer has filled a small lot, a vine row or even an entire vineyard with a single strain.
Winemakers and wine farmers choose clones for many different reasons, from their resistance to certain local crop diseases, to their sugar concentrations and flavor profiles. This farming art dates back hundreds of years. As a result, most of the wines you enjoy boast clone lineages that date back several centuries.
For instance, Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 8 comes from cuttings originally clipped in 1893 at the famed Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux. Since then, the clone can be found in some of the best vineyards in California, including Cass Vineyard & Winery in Paso Robles.
“Clone 8 provides a solid backbone for many of our Cabernet Sauvignons, which are often a mix of several distinct clones,” says Cass Winemaker Sterling Kragten. “Clone 8 has those traditional qualities: dark color, good tannin structure, and flavors of dark fruit, spice, and slight herbal character.”
The other key clones in Paso include Clone 169, Clone 7 and Clone 337, among many others, and carry equally rich histories, and unique flavor characteristics.
To help better understand these unique clone qualities, how they’re blended and why they’re essential to the award-winning and top-scoring Cabernet Sauvignon coming out of Paso Robles, the Paso Robles CAB Collective is proud to host the expert panel “Know Your Cab Clones” at this year’s CABs of Distinction April 12-14. The winemaker panel includes Steve Peck, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, Anthony Riboli, San Antonio Winery, Kevin Willenborg, Vina Robles Vineyards & Winery, and Sterling Kragten, Cass Vineyard & Winery.
