United States · California

Beaulieu Vineyard

Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) is one of Napa Valley's oldest continuously operating wineries, founded in 1900 by Georges de Latour and his wife Fernande on benchland soils in the Rutherford AVA. The winery survived Prohibition by obtaining permission to produce sacramental wines, then hired legendary Russian-trained enologist André Tchelistcheff in 1938, who transformed BV into a quality benchmark for American wine and trained or influenced virtually every major California winemaker of the following generation. The Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon — named for the founder and first produced in 1936 — is historically significant as one of California's oldest continuously made vineyard-designate Cabernets and set the standard for Napa Valley Cabernet through the 1960s–1980s. Diageo acquired BV in 1969 as part of Heublein; Treasury Wine Estates took ownership in 2015. Auction data shows 1,458 lots of the Georges de Latour Private Reserve at a $153 average, with the 1997 vintage most actively traded and prices reaching $1,673. Older library vintages from the Tchelistcheff era (1951, 1958, 1968, 1970) remain sought by Napa wine historians and achieve notable premiums within the $151 average for historical Burgundy and BV lots. The Clone 6 Cabernet Sauvignon averages $92 across 26 lots, while the broader Cabernet Sauvignon tier averages $51 across 94 lots. The winery's historical significance as auction driver remains stronger than its current quality trajectory under corporate ownership.