Beaulieu Cabernet Georges de Latour Private Reserve 1970-1979 Blindtasted

Introductory comments by tasting organizer, Ross Bott:
Napa Valley has been almost synonomous with Cabernet Sauvignon for about the last half century. In the 1960s, decades before the Screaming Eagle and Colgin and Harlan and Merus came into existing, there were two Napa wineries which drove the Valley's wines to international prominence and led to an acceleration in Cabernet vineyard plantings and a focus on producing world class Cabs. These two wineries were Beaulieu and Heitz.

The history of Beaulieu actually began sixty years before Heitz. Beaulieu was founded in 1885 by Georges de Latour and was one of the few wineries to survive the Prohibition era during the 1920's because of a national contract to provide altar wine to churches. (By 1922 Beaulieu found that church attendance had dramatically increased.) When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Beaulieu had a head start on the rest of the wine business in re-planting vineyard and re-establishing wineries. Latour took the opportunity to focus on creating a wine line that would be the best that America could produce. As part of this effort, he brought over a young winemaker from Russia, Andre Tchelistcheff in 1938.

Tchelistcheff was born on December 7, 1901 in Moscow, the son of the then Chief Justice of the Russian Imperial Court. As a teenager, he fought in the Russian Civil War and was severely wounded and left for dead in a machine gun battle in Crimea in 1921. After recovering, he studied agriculture in Czechoslavakia and then winemaking in Paris at the Institut Pasteur.

As a winemaker, Tchelistcheff was credited with many of the innovations which now are a core part of high-end winemaking in California including aging wines in small new oak barrels, cold fermentation, and malolactic fermentation. In 1940, he introduced a Cabernet Sauvignon line called "Georges de Latour Private Reserve" that has continued uninterrupted through current times.

Tchelistcheff continued at Beaulieu until 1973, but remained on as a consultant and was heavily influential at that winery throughout the 1970s. He died in 1994 at the age of 93, and was active in the wine industry until only months before his death. He was the mentor of many of the next generation of top winemakers, including Mikael Grgich, Richard Peterson, Joseph Heitz, and others. Despite being only 4 feet 11 inches in height, he has had truly a monumental influence on the California wine industry.

Tonight we'll try eight vintages of the Beaulieu Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons spanning the 1970s, a decade when Tchelistcheff was transitioning out of day-to-day winemaking of this Cabernet line, but where is influence and three decades of experience with the wine was at its peak.

Most of these showed somewhat differently than a similar lineup that I tried with George Kautzman some months earlier, all from his cellar. The one that was a star in both tastings was the group's #1 and my #1 in this tasting, the 1976. On the whole, these are hanging in well for aged California Cabernet. There's a consistent note of menthol that comes through on virtually all of these vintages.

• 1976 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Group's #1 (my #1) – 43 pts; 6 firsts, 3 seconds, 2 thirds, 1 last place – dark medium red color with pale meniscus; youthful cassis, red fruit and menthol nose; charming, youthful, cassis, red fruit, menthol and raspberry palate; medium-plus finish

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1973 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve 91 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Group's #2 (my #3) – 56 pts.; 3, 2, 4, 0 – dark medium red color; tangy red fruit, leather and cherry nose; sweet and tangy cherry, cassis palate with menthol, solid; medium finish

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1970 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve 88 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Group's #3 (my #6) – 56 pts.; 3, 2, 3, 1 – dark medium red color; leather, gravy and shitake mushroom nose; mature, mushroom, currant and menthol palate; medium finish 88+ pts.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1971 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve 89 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Group's #5 (my #5) – 62 pts.; 0, 3, 0, 1 – medium red color with clear meniscus; focused cassis, red fruit and menthol nose with a gravy note; mature, sweet red fruit, currant palate, solid, with a little menthol; medium finish

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1977 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve 91 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Group's #6 (my #2) – 82 pts.; 1, 1, 0, 3 – medium red color, slightly darker than the other vintages of the '70s; mature, earthy, red fruit and gravy nose; tart, mature, tangy plum and currant palate with menthol on the back end; medium-plus finish 91+ pts.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1978 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve 90 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Group's #7 (my #4) – 86 pts.; 0, 2, 1, 5 – medium red color with pale meniscus; dusty plum, sweet cherry and port nose; sweet, mature plum and currant palate, with sweet tannins; medium-plus finish 90+ pts.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1975 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve 88 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Group's #8 (my #7) – 87 pts.; 0, 0, 2, 3 – medium red color with pale meniscus; narrower, pruney, red fruit and currant nose; tart, mature, currant, red fruit and menthol palate; medium finish

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No