Arkansas Has An Official State Grape
When you think of the source of Cabernet wines, your mind might shoot directly to the Bordeaux region of France, or the North Coast of California, which features famous wine-making regions like Napa Valley and Sonoma. Additionally, according to Wine Folly, Cabernets are commonly grown in South Australia and Chile, but one area you may not think of as growing Cabernet-like wines is the Ozarks.
The Ozark Mountains are located in the south-central United States, encompassing parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois (via Britannica). The region, especially parts of Altus, Arkansas – which calls itself "the wine capitol of Arkansas" – is home to the native Cynthiana grape, which was dubbed Arkansas' official state grape in 2009 (via Arkansas.com). The Encyclopedia of Arkansas states that Cynthiana has notes similar to those of Cabernets. Some have gone as far as to call it the "Cabernet of the Ozarks." Overall, winemaking is a proud but modest endeavor in Arkansas. During the period spanning from 2007 to 2009, 600 to 750 acres of grapes were used for wine production.
Cynthiana has an identical twin and unique tasting notes
An interesting point to note is that the Cynthiana grape is genetically identical to the Norton grape, which is the state grape of Missouri, per a study conducted by Missouri State University. The researchers claimed to have cleared up any confusion that has continued to stand about the difference between the varieties, arguing that "the terms Norton and Cynthiana should be accepted as the same and used interchangeably."
But that doesn't mean the grapes grown in Arkansas are interchangeable with Missouri's. Arkansas-based grower Mike Oglesby could taste a difference, telling Wine Maker, "Cynthiana from my vineyard has a distinctive brambleberry fruit-forward flavor that I find pleasing but is not to everyone's taste ... I find my Cynthiana wines to be more Burgundy-like but have had St. James Norton, from Missouri, with deep chocolate and coffee overtones."
Master Sommelier Doug Frost spoke about the flavor profile of wines made from the Norton grapes in Augusta, Missouri, in a YouTube video for Feast Magazine. "[The Norton] is big and brusque and brooding and intense and not for the faint of heart ... It's always going to have sort of a red cherry, red currant meets a little touch of prune, a little touch of plum character to it. It's often going to have a finish almost like red apple," Frost said. However, he noted that Nortons grown at different spots in the same state could make for very different-tasting wines.