Beaulieu Vineyard

The vineyard (also known as "BV" for short) in the Rutherford AVA in California's Napa Valley was founded in 1900 by Georges de Latour, a Frenchman from Burgundy. His wife Fernande remarked "Quel beau lieu" (what a beautiful place) on her first visit to the property, from which the name derives. Before the American Prohibition, the best Californian Cabernet Sauvignon was produced here. The winery survived the ban on alcohol from 1920 to 1933 with difficulty thanks to a licence for the production of mass wine. In 1937, Latour hired the young André Tchelistcheff (1900-1998), which was a stroke of luck. When he started, there were almost 30 different wines in the programme and the grape varieties were grown in a wild mix. This was the first thing he changed. He then worked at Beaulieu as head oenologist for a total of 35 years and introduced his pioneering innovations in terms of hygiene, temperature-controlled fermentation, frost prevention using wind machines, etc. The later famous winemakers Miljenko "Mike" Grgich (1923-2023) and Joe Heitz (1919-2000) and Robert Mondavi (1913-2008) worked at the winery as assistants for some time.

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Beaulieu Vineyard

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