Cabernet Sauvignon is important to California, and certainly to Sonoma's next door neighbor, Napa Valley. Napa is home to some of the most famous and most sought-after Cabernets in the world. There are 95,000 acres of Cab Sauv planted in the state. By county, the largest amounts are in Napa, San Luis Obispo (home to the Paso Robles appellation), then Sonoma County.
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| Fountain Grove Winery, Santa Rosa, founded 1882 image from Sonoma County Library |
Chronological highlights:
1600s Cabernet first appears in France as a crossbreed between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc.
1850s Santa Clara Valley contains the most vineyards in Calif. and claims the first plantings of Cab Sauv in the state.
1857 Buena Vista Winery, the state's oldest premium winery, is founded by Agoston Haraszthy near the town of Sonoma. Haraszthy was instrumental in setting modern vineyard and winemaking practices in California.
1875 Sonoma County leads the state in wine production.
1878 John Drummond bought a piece of land in Sonoma Valley, now part of Kunde Winery. He imported Cabernet cuttings from Bordeaux, including from Chateau Lafite. Soon his grapes commanded top dollar.
1884 John Drummond releases California's first wine labeled as Cabernet Sauvignon, made from his estate grapes.
1904 Drummond dies at the early age of 39. The Kunde family buys the property and own it to this day. They unknowingly pulled out Drummond's original Cabernet, but are still farming his Zinfandel planted in 1882.
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| Harvesting grapes for Buena Vista Winery, circa 1900 image from Sonoma County Library |
1940 Louis Martini plants Cabernet in his Monte Rosso Vineyard in the hills above Sonoma Valley. These are believed to be the oldest producing Cabernet vines in North America. The Monte Rosso site is also home to Zinfandel and Sémillon dating to 1886.
1940s Frank Bartholomew bought the neglected Buena Vista Winery at state auction. A UC Davis professor suggested they plant Cabernet, among other grapes.
1963 The most-planted grapes in Napa are Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, then Cabernet Sauvignon.
1964 There are 89 acres of Cab planted in Sonoma County.
1971 There are 1,629 acres of Cab planted in Sonoma County.
1971 Rodney Strong planted a small hillside in Alexander Valley with 15 acres of Cab Sauv. The first release of his Alexander's Crown Cabernet was in 1974 and is a collector's item today.
1972 There are 2,469 acres of Cab planted in the county, most are not yet old enough to bear fruit.
1976 The Judgement of Paris puts California on the world's wine map for its Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Most of the grapes that went into Chateau Montelena's award-winning Chardonnay at that event came from Bacigalupi Vineyards in Sonoma County.
1987 Silver Oak Winery, one of the best-known Napa Cabernet producers, buys a vineyard in Sonoma County's Alexander Valley. They've since added several other vineyards from the same area.
2023 There are 13,000 acres of Cab planted in Sonoma County. Most are planted in the warmer areas of Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, and Knights Valley. Also at higher elevations in Rockpile, Sonoma Mountain, and Moon Mountain. Grown in cooler parts of the county are 13,000 acres of Pinot Noir and over 15,000 acres of Chardonnay. These three varietals make up two-thirds of the vineyard acreage in the county.
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| Jordan Winery's hillside Cabernet vineyard in Alexander Valley image from jordanwinery.com |
Sources:
SonomaWineGrape.org SantaClaraWines.com WineBusiness.com
AlexanderValley.org GuildSomm.com
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