The historic Wente Vineyards is California’s oldest family-owned and continuously operated winery. Founded in 1883 by Charles H. Wente and today managed by the fourth and fifth generations of the Wente family, it is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year! After learning about winemaking from Charles Krug, Wente, an immigrant from Germany, recognized that the warm days, cool nights, and gravelly soils of the Livermore Valley (east-south-east of San Francisco) were ideal for growing grapes. He purchased 48 acres and planted vineyards. Today the winery grows grapes on 2700 acres.

The benchmarks for Sauvignon Blanc are the crisp, dry white wines of France’s Loire Valley (Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé) and of Bordeaux (Graves and Haut-Médoc, where it is blended with Semillon). The United States and New Zealand have also had recent success, but Sauvignon historically has had trouble being considered on a par with the great white wines made from Chardonnay and Riesling. It is difficult to make great Sauvignon Blanc because of its very strong personality. As its name implies (Sauvignon = sauvage = savage), vintners have had to learn to control its tendency to make aggressive, green, and bitter wines.