The Cabernet Conundrum: Is It Love or Force of Habit?

There are two marketing geniuses I want to meet. First, I need to know who turned kale from the thing we used to put over the ice on salad bars as decoration to the first item to sell out in Whole Foods whenever a storm is imminent. Second, I’d love to have a chat with the person who managed to convince the majority of red wine drinkers in the U.S. that Cabernet Sauvignon is the be-all and end-all. Don’t get me wrong—I’m a big fan of Cabernet, which enjoys popularity across multiple generations, starting with the silent generation, who, along with the boomers, passed their dogmatic affinity down to Gen X and in turn the millennials. Basically, most living wine drinkers have been told by their parents that Cabernet Sauvignon is the “it” grape.

But there is a slight problem with their collective memory. While Cabernet can be excellent and is certainly responsible for some of the world’s best wines, they can also be overcropped, overextracted, overoaked, overpriced, and underwhelming. In fact, because the cult of Cabernet has so many devout members, winemakers can get away with a lot more than they should.

Enter Syrah (or Shiraz, as the Aussies call it). What amazes me most about this grape is the value it offers at virtually every tier. The most expensive Syrahs in the world (Penfolds Grange, Henschke Hill of Grace, Guigal’s famous “La La” wines, et cetera) all tend to be far less expensive than their Cabernet-based equivalents; in some instances, you could get a case of one of these wines for the same price as a single bottle of Napa Cab.

But beyond bang for your buck, there’s something far more important you should know: Cabernet drinkers actually tend to prefer Syrah. They just don’t know it yet.

I spent most of my nearly 20-plus years as a corporate-level wine director overseeing many upscale steakhouses. No matter the restaurant or circumstance, empirical experimentation proved time and time again that self-proclaimed Cabernet lovers largely prefer Syrah. Every time a guest told me they loved Cabernet or felt they should drink a Cab because they were having red meat, I would ask them to describe what they loved about the grape. And wouldn’t you know it—999 times out of 1,000, they wrote the perfect tasting note for Syrah of some type. Sometimes it was from Washington State, other times South Africa, France, or Australia. But the consistent theme was a textbook understanding of Syrah: smoky, earthy, savory, juicy, concentrated, dark, deep, spicy, oaky, and so on.

Every time that occurred, I’d tell a guest I had the perfect wine for them, serve it to them blind, and feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction when, after they exclaimed how perfect the wine was, I’d reveal it to be not Cabernet but Syrah! It’s a wonderfully enjoyable game to play, not because I’m in the habit of tricking guests but rather because it leads them to a discovery they would have never made if left to their own devices. So the next time you are thinking about ordering a Cabernet, try Syrah instead. The life you change may well be your own. ❧