Beaulieu - Georges De Latour Private Reserve - Napa Valley 2020

Beaulieu - Georges De Latour Private Reserve - Napa Valley 2020

Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a historic wine in Napa Valley Wine

Beaulieu Vineyard Reserve wines are handcrafted from the finest grapes of the vintage, focusing on its premier estates in Rutherford, Carneros, and other Napa Valley appellations. For more than 100 years, Beaulieu Vineyard has set the benchmark for rich, classic Napa Valley wines. Its legacy honors the marriage between state-of-the-art technology and gentle, traditional winemaking methods, a combination that enhances the expression of its remarkable vineyard terroir.

Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has been widely recognized as the benchmark Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford since its inaugural vintage in 1936. Beaulieu's understanding of terroir comes from more than 100 years of creating rich, classic Napa Valley wines.

The 2020 vintage

The 2020 season had a warm, dry winter and the rain and cooler weather didn’t arrive until the end of March. A mild spring provided a great early start and summer brought very cool mornings and very warm days. While the harvest was smaller-yielding and proved to be one of the most challenging in history, our talented and always optimistic winemakers created wines of very high quality with concentrated flavors and excellent acidity, especially for varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, from
this unprecedented vintage.

Tasting notes
This vintage is a powerhouse example of our flagship wine, with an intense and fragrant bouquet of ripe, dark berries, grape compote, black cherry, orange peel, and black plum, alongside savory, perfumed notes of wild violet, rose petal, fresh spearmint, bay laurel, and earth. Warm baking spice notes from the French oak barrel influence add vanilla, caramel, and allspice. Saturated dark fruit is present and voluminous throughout the palate, exhibiting mouthcoating structure with density and enveloping richness. Full-bodied and multilayered, secondary notes of bittersweet dark chocolate, umami, leather, tobacco leaf, and graphite add additional nuance and complexity. The signature “Rutherford Dust” tannins are pronounced, framing the wine and presenting a firm grip with chewy, cocoa-powder texture. The mouthwatering palate is lively and fresh with balanced acidity, demonstrating length and a lovely generosity. Incredibly pleasing upon release, yet certain to age for many years to come.