Cabernet Sauvignon is a French variety, a natural cross of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. In California it is the most widely planted wine grape by bearing acreage: 88,062 acres in 2025, up from 48,286 in 2000, spread across 49 counties. Napa County alone holds about a quarter of the statewide total, with San Luis Obispo and Sonoma next. The grape is thick-skinned and tannic, ages well in oak, and is bottled both as a single-variety wine and as the main component of Bordeaux-style blends.
What kind of grape this is
- Species
- VITIS VINIFERA LINNÉ SUBSP. SATIVA (DE CANDOLLE) HEGI
- Berry color
- NOIR
- Country of origin
- FRANCE
- Synonyms
- 62
- Approved on a US label
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- FPS selections
- 54
names this grape is known by elsewhere, per VIVC
the names TTB permits on a bottle
distinct clones and selections held at UC Davis
What is published
Counts describe what this atlas holds for Cabernet Sauvignon, 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.
- 1,170
county-years of acreage
49 counties, 88,062 bearing acres in 2025
- 442
district-years of crush
17 of 17 crush districts, 26 crop years
- 442
district-years of Brix
tonnage-weighted at the crusher, Crush Report Table 3
- 455
producers 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
Acreage in California
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Counties and concentration
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Where it is planted
Reported by county — never by AVA
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Share of each county's vineyard
Reported by county — never by AVA
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The counties
Reported by county — never by AVA
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Tonnage and price by district
Reported by crush district — never by county or AVA
All 17 districts on one axis →
loading crush report…
Brix at the crusher
Reported by crush district — never by county or AVA
loading must chemistry…
Growers in this atlas's roster
- Alexander Valley Vineyardsbottled
Winery · 50th Anniversary Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander School Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, CYRUS and 3 more
- Alpha Omegabottled
Winery · Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Sauvignon Atlas Peak, Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville and 15 more
- Balestrieri Family Farmbottled
Winery · BFF Red Blend, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
- Beaulieu Vineyardbottled
Winery · Georges de Latour Private Reserve, Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Madame de Latour Red Blend and 13 more
- Bedrock Wine Co.bottled
Winery · Monte Rosso Vineyard, Montecillo Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Papera Ranch
- Bel Vinobottled
Winery · Cabernet Sauvignon
- Benziger Family Winerybottled
Winery · Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
- Black Box Winesbottled
Brand · Cabernet Sauvignon
- Black Stallion Winerybottled
Winery · Barrel Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Bucephalus Napa Red, Collector Edition Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon and 9 more
- Blankiet Estatebottled
Winery · Blankiet Estate Proprietary Red
- Bonanno Vintnersbottled
Winery · Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
- Bonita Bonitabottled
Winery · Cabernet Sauvignon
and 443 more in the roster.
455 of this atlas’s 2772 curated producers, 126 of them with a named wine in the atlas made from it. A roster is not a census — this is who the atlas has entered, not who grows the grape in California.
Measured chemistry, from one producer's own sheets
Ridge Monte Bello 2021
64% cabernet sauvignon13.5 %
alcohol
3.46
pH
6.9 g/L
TA
—
RS
1 wine from 1 producer, each read from that producer’s own tech sheet and linked to it. No average is shown, and none should be computed from these. Wineries that publish tech sheets are selected by their own marketing departments, so a mean across them describes publishing habits rather than a grape.