Cabernet sauvignon is the all-time celebrity of viniculture. It is the most planted wine grape in the world, covering approximately 720,000 acres of the planet’s surface – only merlot comes anywhere near it. The largest consumers of red wine on Earth, the Chinese, cannot get enough of it and Chile’s 2,700 miles of coastline along the cool Pacific boasts such extensive plantings that French producers from Bordeaux have invested more heavily in the region than anywhere else in the world. No red variety has been reviewed more in wine columns than cabernet, its only rival in the review stakes being the almost as ubiquitous chardonnay, and, while claret blends vary, cabernet sauvignon is the constant.