Beaulieu Vineyards
Georges de Latour Private Reserve
Napa Valley
2019

The producer

Beaulieu Vineyards is one of the most historical and iconic wineries in Napa Valley. It was founded by George de Latour and his wife Fernande who discovered the original vineyard site near Rutherford in Napa Valley in the 1900s. Fernande is known to have exclaimed “que beau lieu!” and thus the name of the estate. After prohibition was lifted, the de Latours got serious about making wine and hired the legendary winemaker, Andre Tchelistcheff. Tchelistcheff would end up making the wine at Beaulieu for 40 years, after which he went on to consult for other wine icons Masseto and Ornellaia in Tuscany.

The wine

‘Georges de Latour Private Reserve’ was first made in 1936, and quickly went on to become one of Napa’s cult wines, from the 1940 vintage onwards, regularly served at functions at the White House. Georges de Latour is a Cabernet Sauvignon led blend, and sourced from two vineyards located right across the street from the winery. Matured for 22 months in new French oak barrels, Georges de Latour Private Reserve is a rich, multi-layered and powerful wine, with enormous complexity and refined structure and a finish. The 2019 vintage received 100 points from James Suckling and was voted his “Wine of the Year” in 2022.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.