*** Wine Announcement ***
I will likely bring a Cabernet Pfeffer. Why? Because it is pretty damned tasty, and because you will be able to say that "I tasted Cabernet Pfeffer" before you die. While I've brought some fairly obscure stuff over the years, I won't outdo myself on this one, ever.
Cabernet Pfeffer is a mysterious grape variety planted in tiny quantities in California. Not much is known for sure about its origins – it is thought to be a crossing of
Cabernet Sauvignon and another unknown variety (maybe
Trousseau), and it is thought to have been bred in Los Altos Hills,
California, in the late 19th Century, by orchardist and winemaker William Pfeffer. Whether the variety was named after him, or for its spicy characteristics ("Pfeffer" is German for pepper) is a further mystery. Only a small handful of Californian producers are known to make wine from this grape, most of them located in
San Benito, a wine region at the southern end of the Santa Cruz mountains. In California, around 12 acres (4.5 hectares) are currently planted to the variety. Varietal examples of Cabernet Pfeffer exhibit bright, red-fruit characters such as cherries, a hint of bitterness and plenty of black pepper and spice. These wines are lighter than those of their parent Cabernet Sauvignon, but retain much of its famous
tannic structure. To complicate matters even further, Cabernet Pfeffer is thought to be either identical to or frequently confused for
Gros Verdot, an obscure variety native to Bordeaux. Localised DNA profiling has confirmed the two are identical in certain vineyards but this has yet to account for the majority of Cabernet Pfeffer plantings. Other studies have found that certain Cabernet Pfeffer vines are, in fact, the even more obscure French Mourtaou grape variety. (Source: WineSearcher)