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California Wine Atlas

Cabernet Dorsa

Red wine grape · reported 2019–2025

Further reading: VIVC catalog entry

Cabernet Dorsa is a modern German red, bred by crossing Blaufraenkisch with Dornfelder to make an early-ripening, deeply colored variety for cooler German sites. In California it is a very recent, very small arrival: crush reports show it in seven vintages since 2019 across three districts, with a single grower currently listed and no acreage figure recorded yet. It is too new and too small here to have an established style; where it appears, it is likely valued for the same traits that were bred into it, color and early ripening.

What kind of grape this is

Species
VITIS VINIFERA LINNÉ SUBSP. SATIVA (DE CANDOLLE) HEGI
Berry color
NOIR
Country of origin
GERMANY
Parentage
BLAUFRAENKISCH×DORNFELDER

confirmed by DNA markers

Synonyms
2

names this grape is known by elsewhere, per VIVC

FPS selections
1

distinct clones and selections held at UC Davis

What is published

Counts describe what this atlas holds for Cabernet Dorsa, not what California grows. A zero is a published answer: it means the source names the grape and reports nothing under it, or does not name it at all.

0

county-years of acreage

the Grape Acreage Report has never named it in a county table

12

district-years of crush

3 of 17 crush districts, 7 crop years

12

district-years of Brix

tonnage-weighted at the crusher, Crush Report Table 3

1

producer in this atlas

producers whose curated wine list names it — a curated roster of 2,772 producers, not a census of California

regions with a maturity date

not one of the eight cultivars with a

Tonnage and price by district

Reported by crush district — never by county or AVA

All 3 districts on one axis →

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Brix at the crusher

Reported by crush district — never by county or AVA

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Growers in this atlas's roster

1 of this atlas’s 2772 curated producers. A roster is not a census — this is who the atlas has entered, not who grows the grape in California.