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Beaulieu Vineyard is a cozy Napa Valley winery tucked right off the St. Helena Highway in Rutherford. In this Beaulieu Vineyard Review, I’ll share all about my visit to BV wines and explain all the tasting experiences that you can enjoy at this beautiful Napa winery. You’ll also learn all about Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour wine, which is an award winning wine for BV wines.
Beaulieu Vineyard Review
My Beaulieu Vineyard Review or BV Wines Review is a glowing review! I visited the Napa Valley Winery on a beautiful sunny Sunday with my sister and brother who were in town from Ireland. We sat outside in the patio area and had the best time. BV wines is just off the St. Helena Highway, but you feel like you are tucked away in a world of your own at the winery.
Roxanne was our host and she made the experience incredibly engaging and enjoyable. We took our time tasting the wines and enjoying the beautiful outdoor patio, while Roxanne kept us filled up on both wine and the incredible history of BV winery.
Beaulieu Vineyard History
I wanted to share some history about Beaulieu Vineyard with you. I always love when I learn more about the history of the winery that I’m visiting. It always makes the place more memorable.
Beaulieu means “Beautiful Place” in French. In 1900, when Georges de Latour’s wife, Fernande, saw the land that is now the original vineyard, she said “Quelle beau lieu!” meaning “What a beautiful place.”
Georges de Latour sold his cream of tartar business and bought the four acre ranch. He founded Beaulieu Vineyard in the hopes of making wines that would be as good as the much celebrated French wines. Over the years, there have been many more vineyards purchased by BV wines. The names on the wines often reflect where the grapes are from e.g. “Ranch 1” or “Ranch 2”
Years before Prohibition began, George de Latour obtained a warrant to produce altar wine for the Church. The Prohibition forced most of the Napa Valley wine industry to shut down. Because BV wines were supplying altar wine, they were able to remain open and they actually expanded during the prohibition.
The Georges de Latour name is now a well known name due to the famous and multi-award winning Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. When André Tchelistcheff joined Beaulieu Vineyard in 1938, he tasted the de Latour family’s private wine, which was called “Private Reserve” – from the 1936 vintage.
André Tchelistcheff insisted it become the winery’s flagship offering as it was so good! In 1940, Beaulieu Vineyard released the first of Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. It became Napa Valley’s first “cult” Cabernet. In 80+ years since, Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has become the benchmark of Napa Valley Cabernet as one of the most collected American wines in the wine world. As part of our wine tasting at Beaulieu Vineyards, we got to taste this famous Cabernet Sauvignon and it did not disappoint.
Beaulieu Vineyard Tastings & Reservations
Beaulieu Vineyard is open Monday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm. There are various different tasting experiences and food pairings available. You can enjoy your wine tasting inside in a couple of tasting rooms or outside on the patio. We chose outside as it is such a beautiful place to relax in.
It is important to note that BV wines are all red wine. All of the wine tasting experiences are of red wine only.
We enjoyed the Patio Cabernet Collector Tasting which is a tasting of 5 Cabernet Sauvignon wines. As part of the wine tasting, we tasted the following and enjoyed all of them:
- 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon & Syrah (76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Syrah)
- 2018 Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2018 Ranch 1 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot
- 2018 Ranch 2 Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2018 Georges de Latour Private Reserve – this a great wine and is the famous Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
This tasting experience can be enjoyed indoors in a tasting room too. Inside is really beautiful too.
The Georges de Latour Library Experience is another wine tasting experience that you can enjoy at BV Winery. It is a 120 minute premium tasting experience where your host will guide you through a selection of past vintages from multiple decades of the iconic Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. You will also get to taste the current vintage and be brought on a tour of the historic Beaulieu Vineyard winery facility. This is a great option if you want to learn more about the history of BV wines and explore the best wines in town!
For the full list of tasting experiences offered by BV winery, see the website here.
Regardless of which tasting you choose, you are bound to have a relaxing and enjoyable time tasting Beaulieu Vineyard Napa Valley Wines.
Beaulieu Vineyard Wines
While you are at Beaulieu Vineyard, you will taste some of the best wines and the good news is, you can also take home some wine gifts for yourself or others.
Due to the diverse soils across the many Beaulieu vineyards and ranches, there are lots of different mouth filling flavors to explore with BV wines. Some are classic napa valley wines and others are very unique to BV.
The 2019 Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is the most popular wine. The nose shows dark, ripe, berry fruit aromas of black raspberry, red currant, and black cherry. You’ll also experience herb notes of wild lavender, rose, fresh mint, sage, and thyme.
This wine is aged in a French oak barrel which adds caramel, cedar, and clove. It has balanced acidity and is perfect for drinking when you purchase or it can also be aged for many years.
Another great and very popular wine by BV Wines is the 2018 Beaulieu Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The majority of this Cabernet is sourced from Napa Valley’s Rutherford, Calistoga and St. Helena appellations.
The diverse soils and microclimates, as well as the various clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and cultivation techniques, contributed to this wine’s complex flavor profile. The balance of the blend was grown both in the BV estate vineyards and other quality vineyards of Napa Valley.
The 2018 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon shows aromas of red berry fruits on the nose, supported by notes of wild blackberry, black cherry, red currant and ripe plum, backed up by delicate oak notes of warm holiday spices, including; cinnamon and star anise spice with vanilla bean. Well integrated baking spice notes of cinnamon and nutmeg from the toasted oak barrels are seamlessly woven throughout the wine. This complements the berry fruit aromas and flavors, which leads to a long mouthwatering finish. I highly recommend this BV wine.
All of the wine reviews on the BV wines shop have suggested food pairings included. See all of the wines offered by BV wines here.
BV Wine Club – a Beaulieu Vineyard Club Membership
If you love visiting the BV winery in Napa Valley and want to experience the wine at home or again at the Vineyard, check out the Beaulieu Vineyard Club Membership. Club Members get complimentary tastings for the members and up to 3 guests, you’ll also get access to the member only tasting room, invites to exclusive events and customizable shipments multiple times per year.
My Overall Beaulieu Vineyard Review
We loved our visit to Beaulieu Vineyard. I loved the relaxing feeling of the patio and all the delicious wines we tasted. Our experience with all the hosts at Beaulieu Vineyards was so good. Everyone was so friendly and spoke so passionately about the winery. I highly recommend that you add Beaulieu Vineyard to your Napa Valley Itinerary.
Hope you enjoyed my Beaulieu Vineyard review. To finish off my review, I’m going to answer some frequently asked questions on Beaulieu Vineyard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Beaulieu Vineyard located?
Beaulieu Vineyard is located in Rutherford, Napa Valley. It is located just off the St. Helena Highway. I highly recommend you adventure to St. Helena before or after your tasting. It’s a very pretty, quaint town that is waiting to be explored.
Who owns BV wines?
BV wines is owned by Treasury Wine Estates. While you are in the area, visit another Treasury Wine Estates that has an estate that you can wander around and explore in. Read all the details on Beringer Vineyards here.
What are Beaulieu Vineyard’s opening hours?
Beaulieu Winery opens Mon-Sun at 10am and closes each day at 5pm. I always recommend booking wine tastings in advance to make sure that you save your spot in time.
Where else should I visit when in Napa Valley?
Here are some related blog posts to some of my other favorite Napa Valley Wineries.
Domaine Carneros Review (an ultra lux sparkling wine tasting at a Chateau)
Castello Di Amorosa Review (a magnificent castle winery)
Beringer Vineyards Review (a spectacular historic house with beautiful grounds to explore)
Where should I stay when in Napa Valley?
I recently stayed at Napa River Inn and loved it so much. It’s located in downtown Napa and is a quick drive from everything. The rooms are really quaint and lots have a cozy fireplace. Read all the details on Napa River Inn in my blog post here.
Thank you to Beaulieu Vineyards for hosting us during our visit.
