Sauvignon blanc was first planted in California in the Livermore Valley in the 19th century thanks to newspaper-journalist-turned-winemaker Charles Wetmore who, in the late 1870s, persuaded the California legislature to establish the state viticultural commission. As the commission’s first president and CEO, Wetmore headed straight for the prestigious estates of Europe where he obtained cuttings, including cuttings of sauvignon blanc and sémillon from no less than Bordeaux’s Château d’Yquem.
Those sauvignon blanc cuttings (now called clone 1) became the plant material for vineyards all over the state. Indeed, Wetmore’s clone 1 was probably the sauvignon blanc planted by Gustave Niebaum at Inglenook winery in the Napa Valley. An article in the February 4, 1881, edition of the St. Helena Star, noted that Niebaum received “900 choice cuttings of sauvignon blanc from San Jose.” Later, Beaulieu Vineyards won a gold medal for their sauvignon blanc (also probably clone 1) at the 1915 International Wine Exposition in San Francisco.
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