1% of Cab Franc

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

This is copied from the CT forum, by user GoodToGrape… hoping to see if there’s more expertise here:

"OK, so help my expand my wine understanding on something. I found a pretty good deal locally on the 2006 Faust Cab, and was doing my due diligence on this wine. The blend is 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 3% Malbec, 1% Cabernet Franc.
…
Can 1% of anything that is varietally similar to the main grape really make a difference? I am confident that if I put 1% dish soap in I could tell. Same if I dropped 1% Tobasco sauce into the bottle. I use these examples to draw contrast between very powerful agents that are radically dissimilar to wine and would thus be intantly detectable, to a small amount of a very similar agent (CF) which would seem at least to me to be the proverbial needle in a haystack. But I’m not confident that I would detect 1% Cab Franc (which BTW I love). Put another way, if the winemaker made the identical wine but skipped the Cab Franc, and you tasted the two blends (one with 1% CF and one with 0% CF) side-by-side, could you tell the difference? "

2

Maybe they had one barrel that had cofermented cab franc and other grapes, sort of a field blend.
That barrel ended up in the blend and thus contributed 1% Cab Franc. The blend is what the blend is.

I think it’s highly unlikely that the winemaker sat down with a bottle of the wine and said “You know what this needs? A teaspoon of Cab Franc”

3

1-2% of a geographically related grape can be easily detected by a most wine enthusiasts. i was a disbeliever until my nose was dragged thru the experiment by a winemaker who used identical stems.

4

Perhaps they were performing ‘full disclosure’ and topped one of their merlot or cab sauv barrels with cab franc?!?!?!?

5

So in some cases necessity/expediency may determine the blend versus pure taste. Makes sense.

6

I heard the same thing, but with a caveat of 1% being more for “tasters” and 2% for the general public threshold. After a few experiments, I did detect a difference. After the cab franc test, I learned I could discern the difference. Moreover, after another blind test, apparently I also learned I do NOT like ANY syrah blended with my Bdx varietals!

7

I’m no talent but I’ve detected 1% petit verdot (which I realize is easier to detect) so IMO yes, it is possible to notice a difference in at least some cases.

8

I just did the crushpad blending kit and it was interesting how little a bit (1-3%) of petit verdot or cab franc could make a noticeable difference in the blended wine. I was surprised, but it is noticeable.