2006 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Eight bottles available. 95 points, Wine Enthusiast.

Georges de Latour Private Reserve has a fair claim to being California's first icon Cabernet. The first vintage was 1936, released in 1940. Two years after that first harvest, Beaulieu hired a Russian-trained oenologist named André Tchelistcheff, who spent thirty-five years running the cellar and brought cold fermentation, malolactic fermentation and frost protection into Napa practice. He mentored half the valley, Mike Grgich among them. Every serious Napa Cabernet owes him something.

Where this bottle came from

This came out of a private cellar. We buy our older bottles from collectors we have known for years, and that is the only basis on which we are willing to sell wine of this age: we can tell you whose cellar it sat in and what the conditions were.

In the glass

Wine Enthusiast gave blackberry, blackcurrant and cedar complicated by chocolate, anise, sweet smoky leather and Asian spices. Wine Spectator found dusty herb and loamy earth shading the currant and cedar. Wine & Spirits described a crushed velvet texture and blue-black richness. At 15.1% this is a wine from the riper, more modern end of the estate's history rather than the claret-like Tchelistcheff era, and it is drinking at full maturity now.

Critic scores

• 95 points · Wine Enthusiast
• 92 points · Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine
• 91 points · Wine & Spirits
• 90 points · Wine Spectator

A five-point gap between critics on the same wine usually means a divisive vintage, and 2006 was exactly that in Napa: Wine Spectator's own summary was that for every charming, sumptuous wine there was another that came out hard and tannic. This one landed on the good side of that line, but quoting only the 95 would flatter it.

The details

• Producer: Beaulieu Vineyard, Rutherford
• Appellation: Napa Valley, California
• Vintage: 2006
• Blend: 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec
• Alcohol: 15.1%
• Format: 750ml
• Drinking window: now. At twenty years this is at or just past its plateau.

Serving and pairing

Decant ninety minutes ahead and serve at 62 to 64°F. Prime rib, lamb, or aged cheddar.

Eight bottles, then it comes off the site. Ships from our Florida cellar. Browse more Cabernet.