Thursday, 18 December, 2025
The Drinks Business, James Bayley
The finding sheds light on why this grape remains so consistent across centuries of clonal propagation.
About 400 years ago Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc produced Cabernet Sauvignon, now the world’s most planted wine grape. According to UC Davis, new research shows the variety still carries a form of molecular memory of its parents. For a plant that reproduces through cuttings rather than seeds, it is an impressive feat of long-term recollection, almost as if the vine has been quietly keeping receipts since the seventeenth century.
Grapevines are propagated clonally, meaning every Cabernet Sauvignon vine today is nearly identical to that original plant. Professor Dario Cantù of the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology said, “We still cultivate plant material selected hundreds of years ago simply because Cabernet Sauvignon is so beloved.” According to UC Davis, the new findings confirm that the grape still holds inherited molecular signatures even after centuries of environmental change.
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