Cabernet blanc

Cabernet blanc is a hybrid crossing of the Vitis vinifera wine grape Cabernet Sauvignon and Regent. Regent, up to now the most successful resistant variety in Germany and also having Rpv3 and Ren3, was then identified and confirmed by 25 analysed loci as the missing link. ==Viticulture==

Cabernet blanc tends to produce loose clusters of small, thick-skinned grape berries. The vine is a very vigorous, highly disease and frost resistant variety. It has particularly strong resistance to fungal infections caused by powdery and downy mildew as well as botrytis bunch rot. It is, however, susceptible to the viticultural hazard of millerandage where the grape flowers do not get properly fertilized resulting in bunches having a mix of small, seedless berries and normal size berries. These small "shot berries" often add to the levels of sugar and phenolic extract of the wine and may make it seem "unbalanced". ==Wine regions==

While Cabernet blanc was discovered in Switzerland and there are still limited plantings of the variety in that country, it is most widely planted in the German wine region of Palatinate in western Germany where there were of the grape in cultivation in 2007. Here the thick skin and high disease resistance of the variety lends itself well to the production of both dry and sweet late-harvest wines. Growers in Germany have submitted a request to put Cabernet blanc on the official list of registered grape varieties and, pending approval, plantings of the grape may increase in the country. Outside of Germany, Cabernet blanc is also found in the Netherlands were producers in Achterhoek and Gelderland are experimenting with the variety. While there are American wines being marketed as "Cabernet blanc" or "White Cabernet", these wines are sweet pink-colored blush wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon rather than from true Cabernet blanc. In 1989, a white-berried seedling of Cabernet Sauvignon, named Cygne blanc, was discovered growing in a garden in Western Australia that was planted next to a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard. Unlike Cabernet blanc and Shalistin, Cygne blanc is neither a crossing nor a white color mutation derived from a cutting but rather a selfling that sprang from a seed of a Cabernet Sauvignon berry that fell on the ground and took root. ==Styles==

According to Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, Cabernet blanc produces white wine that have a flavor profile "somewhere between Riesling and Sauvignon blanc" with many of the aromas similar to Sauvignon blanc. ==Synonyms==

As a relatively recent hybrid, Cabernet blanc does not have many synonyms with only Blattner 91-26-1 and VB 91-26-1 recognized by the Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) maintained by the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding. ==References==