React 0.14.8 correct sets the defaultValue for `<select>` when using `<optgroup>`:
https://jsfiddle.net/6v8cnowo/

However, 15.0 RC2 defaults to the first `<option>`:
https://jsfiddle.net/p2ctcgwj/1/

I'm not very familiar with the React codebase, but I suspect it has something to do with a change made in 1dca72e, specifically this line: https://github.com/facebook/react/blame/master/src/renderers/dom/client/wrappers/ReactDOMOption.js#L35

/**
 * Copyright 2013-present, Facebook, Inc.
 * All rights reserved.
 *
 * This source code is licensed under the BSD-style license found in the
 * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree. An additional grant
 * of patent rights can be found in the PATENTS file in the same directory.
 *
 * @emails react-core
 */
'use strict';
describe('ReactDOMSelect', function() {
  var React;
  var ReactDOM;
  var ReactDOMServer;
  var ReactLink;
  var ReactTestUtils;
  var noop = function() {};