And that got me thinking: I don’t generally notice either varietal on offer much. What’s up with that? Is it just marketing? Fussy grapes?
There used to be a lot of PS planted because it provided good color. But when the US wine industry kicked off, it was modeled on Bordeaux. People looked around for what was considered the “best” and that was Bordeaux and the “best” grape was supposed to be Cabernet Sauvignon so that was what people went for.
It wasn’t a bad choice because CS has the virtue of being able to make good and complex wines in many places. Cab Franc buds and ripens a little earlier than CS, and once was planted all over Bordeaux, but a lot of it got replaced by Merlot. It’s often also lighter in color and body than CS when it’s grown in cooler regions. They plant it on the east coast where they get early frost, but I think it does quite well in sunny CA and when I find it, I always try it. Pam Starr makes a nice version. At this point, I think CF is always going to be a secondary grape.
If you like Cab Franc, you might want to try some reds from the Loire, but be warned - those wines will be very unlike the CF grown in California.
PS is a little different. It can be tannic and rather monolithic. Moreover, it was banned in its home region so didn’t have the reputation of CS. So growers planted what they could sell and it is usually easier to sell CS than it is to sell something else.
But with trial and error people have been learning how to make some pretty good examples of PS. It does well in CA’s dry and sunny climate.
As to why you hear more about CS - according to the Napa Valley Register, in 2014 there were 68,921 tons of CS harvested at a price of around $5930/ton, roughly twice the price of things like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. In comparison, there were just 3,565 tons of Cabernet Franc harvested at $5,636 per, and 3,906 tons of Petite Sirah at $3,418 per. One can quibble with the specific numbers and of course they’re just for Napa, but since Napa dominates the high-end wine industry in CA, you can see that you’ll hear a lot more about Cab Sauvignon than anything else.