Dame Wine®

As the 19-year-old man enthusiastically drove a forklift, music blasted and hoses exploded with wine, spraying it all over the cellar. This was one of the best parts of this young man’s day yet a close second was his morning routine – driving around stunning Russian River Valley vineyards while smoking Cuban cigars that the vineyard manager generously shared. “Can’t believe this is a real job?” the young man would exclaim almost daily. Yes, his parents loved to collect wines, and he grew up in a household that always paired it with dinner but it seemed something only to be enjoyed during one’s downtime and not a viable path to gainful employment. Plus, this college kid already had a long-established intended plan as he would follow in the footsteps of his hero, his grandfather, a pilot in World War II and join the US Air Force Academy.

But when he was in high school the idea of having to spend six years minimum of service as well as the additional time at pilot school was an overwhelming commitment at such a young age and so, instead, of going to the United States Air Force Academy, he went to UC Davis for college as part of the ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program. But he had every intention of graduating as a member of the ROTC program at UC Davis, which was commissioned by the US Air Force.

Lo and behold, to his surprise, UC Davis had an incredible winemaking program, one of the country’s best and top in the world. And so this young man, Trevor Durling, would pass on his typical summer job to work instead at a winery as he was fascinated by the idea that wine could be a career. Next thing he knows, he is smoking Cubans, driving an ATV in the vineyards to pick grapes as samples, driving a forklift in the cellar helping to move heavy loads, all while existing in the most creative and energetic environment he had ever experienced; it was sensory overload that made him feel more alive than he had ever felt. That summer changed his “entire trajectory” towards winemaking as the minute he returned to Davis, he changed his major to follow that path.

Trevor then worked at wineries worldwide and a handful in California to gain as much experience and knowledge in all aspects and styles of winemaking as he could until he found his place. Something clicked when he worked for a small, high-end Cabernet Sauvignon producer on the Sonoma side of Mount Veeder, and in 2009, when he first came to Rutherford in Napa, something really clicked as he was assisting the winemaking team at BV with a special project, and then became the assistant winemaker for the Rutherford producer Provenance Vineyards working with the renowned Hewitt Vineyard, in the Rutherford Bench. Today, BV makes special bottlings out of this stellar site to honor the legendary William A. Hewitt.

One day in 2016, he was given “the golden tap on the shoulder” to come to the Rutherford Bench to become the chief winemaker at BV (Beaulieu Vineyard) – one of the founding wineries of Napa Valley. And today, he is releasing the 2016 BV Rarity in magnum format, the flagship BV wine showcasing only stellar vintages of which 2016 is only the sixth vintage since the inaugural in 1968 that has been given such an honor.

Carving Out History 

It seemed almost too good to be true to become the chief winemaker at BV, as Trevor loved these iconic wines but also, he is a huge history buff and BV is undoubtedly a big part of the incredibly successful history of Napa Valley. BV was founded in 1900 by Georges de Latour, a Frenchman from an area outside of Bordeaux. His family was a small grape grower who had their vineyard decimated by Phylloxera, a microscopic louse, in the 1860s but, through time, found a way to come back by grafting French grape vines onto American rootstock which were Phylloxera resistant. But Georges was a true entrepreneur at heart so the US, the land of opportunity, called to him. He ended up in California and quickly made friends with many of the wine producers.  Realizing that there was a great business opportunity with tartaric crystals lining many of his friends’ wine fermentation tanks, he decided to make a deal with them to clean their tanks so he could use the tartaric crystals to make cream of tartar, starting a very successful business that he would later sell.

He used the money to buy land on the Rutherford Bench and since it was the turn of the 20th century, one could have never known that it would possess what would become some of the most valuable vineyards in the world. When Georges’ wife saw the property for the first time, she exclaimed, “Beau lieu!” which means beautiful place in English, and that is how BV (Beaulieu Vineyard) got its name. Within a couple of years, he purchased an adjacent property that was 127 acres in size that was planted with plum and walnut trees. He ripped out those crops and planted 80 acres of the grape variety Petite Sirah, which was the most common during that time and for many years he would sell the grapes. Well, Phylloxera also came after the French grapes varieties planted in California and many wine grape growers were losing their vines to this pest. But since this same thing happened to Georges’ family back in Bordeaux, another business was born, importing French grape varieties already grafted onto American rootstock from France, and for a time, he acted as a nursery for all the wine grape growers in Napa Valley.

When Prohibition legally shut down the US wine industry between 1920 to 1933, the only couple of exceptions for legal winemaking was for sacramental wine and medicinal purposes, as doctors could prescribe wine as medicine. So Georges, seeing another opportunity, applied for licenses to do both and quadrupled his wine business during Prohibition. Once Prohibition ended, Georges turned the focus of his wine business from quantity to quality; as a man who was always two steps ahead, he could see that, one day, quality would be the future for Napa Valley wine. Then, a friend of Georges, a professor at UC Berkeley, which is where the current UC Davis winemaking department started, told him about a talented chemistry and agronomy student named André Tchelistcheff, who was conducting research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

André was a remarkable man by all accounts as he was born in Moscow in 1901 and fought in the Russian Civil War as an infantry officer in the White Army and was left for dead on the battlefield after his entire platoon was killed. After surviving in a foxhole for 38 hours with a broken back, a man on horseback picking dead bodies off the battlefield took him back to base. He made a reputation for himself as having a brilliant scientific mind at a Czechoslovakian university, so he was invited to do research at the Pasteur Institute and worked for the French National Agronomy Institute.

Georges de Latour went to Paris to convince André to come back with him and André started at BV in 1938 becoming technical director of winemaking until he retired in 1973; then he came out of retirement to come back in 1991 as a consultant at the age of 90 years old until he passed away a few years later. André Tchelistcheff is considered America’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker and is often called “the Maestro.” 

Rarity 

André Tchelistcheff was the first to produce Rarity in 1968, and at the time, it was called ‘Special Burgundy.’ It was not bottled in a magnum format like today but in a 750ml Burgundy-shaped bottle yet the current label still takes its inspiration from the original. Also, today Rarity is a Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine with a small amount of Petit Verdot. Yet, Rarity in its earliest vintages was an assortment of varieties planted on some of the most prime real estate in Rutherford, Napa Valley, such as the first vintage, 1968, was mainly made up of Gamay and the lesser known red grape variety Mondeuse from the Savoy wine region in France as well as a bunch of other unorthodox grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon was not really of significant acreage in the Napa Valley until the 1950’s, according to BV chief winemaker Trevor Durling.

As if BV didn’t already have a couple of iconic Napa legends as part of their story, another one, who is still a strong force today in the world of wine, is one of the most famous vineyard owners, Andy Beckstoffer. Through a series of different acquisitions, Andy was brought in as an executive for a company that bought BV in the late 1960s and his old office is the one that Trevor uses today.

After many ups and downs in the economy, Andy would buy some of the BV vineyards and other highly prized vineyards in the area, and started his own company Beckstoffer Vineyards. One of the most famous vineyards in Napa, named To Kalon, was one of those vineyards he purchased from BV, which was called BV4 at the time and an essential part of the first Rarity vintage. André Tchelistcheff was Andy’s first viticulturist and together, with André’s ability to attain greatness from those vineyards that possessed it, combined with Andy’s keen marketing and business prowess as well as an uncanny ability to see the future, they created a partnership that uplifted independent grape growers. Andy went on to establish a role where premium contract grape growers would be able to command high prices by bringing recognition to the importance of these vineyards and to who owned them.

At times, as Trevor walks through vineyards and rooms that held pivotal conversations among some of the Napa greats, he can’t believe he is part of continuing a legacy that has linked three extraordinary men. And today, he even finds himself joking with one of those greats, as he recently asked Andy Beckstoffer if he could place “BV4” on the label of the wine that was made from his To Kalon grapes, which quickly got a firm, “No” but also a big laugh from the icon himself, as such men appreciate a lively spirited.

There was no bigger hero to Trevor than his grandfather and he often thinks back to all those weekends he spent with him – a superhuman figure who shaped him into the man he is today. And even though he thought he would be part of something larger than himself, like his grandfather was a World War II pilot, it didn’t happen exactly as he thought it would. Still, there is no doubt, he is part of something larger than himself, and that larger something was a main factor in bringing into fruition the Napa Valley that everyone knows today.

***Link to original Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathrinetodd/2023/06/07/a-napa-valley-wine-founder-releases-1250-rare-flagship-wine-of-exceptional-quality/

Rarity

2016 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) ‘Rarity’ Rutherford, Napa Valley (magnum format): 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot. 2016 was an excellent vintage for Napa, and Trevor says it is the “best one” he has seen in his career. The wine certainly leaves one speechless as it is something unique and rare. Multilayered nose with rich cocoa dust and uplifting violet notes with a lovely texture on the body that is reminiscent of delicate lace that is enhanced by delicious flavors of blueberry tart with a backbone of intense minerality and freshness on the long, expressive finish. Only 188 cases made. Price $1,250.

2013 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) ‘Rarity’ Rutherford, Napa Valley (magnum format): 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot. 2013 is one of the “most powerful vintages” that Trevor has experienced and its bigger structure makes it seem more youthful than 2016. Fresh tobacco, graphite and dried sage create an enticing nose that draws one into the deep flavors of blackcurrant cordial with complex hints of tar and autumn leaves with broad tannic shoulders that are round and approachable yet suggest this will make great old bones. Only 125 cases made. Price $1,600.

‘Georges de Latour’ Private Reserve

2016 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV), ‘Georges de Latour’ Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve, Napa Valley: 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot. A multifaceted wine when it comes to aromas, flavors and textures, with a nose that commands attention with cigar box, dried red cherries and pressed rose petals with warming fruit that envelopes the drinker with delectable flavors of kirsch and plum tart with hints of river rocks that has finely etched tannins giving it lift and bright acidity bringing vitality to the finish that leaves mineral aromas in one’s head. 

2008 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) ‘Georges de Latour’ Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve, Napa Valley: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec. This was the first vintage made in the new winery built by BV exclusively dedicated to the Georges de Latour Private Reserve. This wine has an absolutely stunning purity that grabs one’s heart and brings such a tremendous amount of delight with fresh mulberries and pretty wildflowers with a hint of jasmine oil and freshly baked blueberry muffins with incredibly stunning fruit on the long, flavorful finish.

1981 Beaulieu Vineyard (BV) ‘Georges de Latour’ Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve, Napa Valley: Mainly Cabernet Sauvignon from a drought year. Delightful aromas of smoldering earth and baking spices with bright cranberry flavors on the palate with lots of vibrant acidity and energy with a fierce focus.

There was no greater view than that of the Earth from the International Space Station (ISS), as no other gave such a feeling of insignificance – the petty problems, the constant fears of the unknown, the overwhelming exhaustion of never living up to a grander purpose. All of it melted away as a feeling of peace, contentment, of utter awe overtook the astronauts. For the newbies, it was the first time they had had such an experience and for those who had been on the station for a while, they had seen that view more times than they could count but it never lost its power, especially when someone knew that they were seeing it for the last time.  

Living on the ISS had its profound life-changing moments but most of the time, the crew kept to a strict schedule of tasks that would help NASA advance its knowledge of the effects of space on the human body. Also, keeping busy kept them from thinking about some terrifying aspects of being in a situation such as CO2 poisoning. The Apollo 13 mission, in 1970, which was supposed to be the third Apollo mission to land on the moon, went through such a nightmare as the CO2 expelled by the astronauts’ breathing started to rise to toxic levels.

There have been significant advances since Apollo 13 one of them is using zeolite to capture CO2 on the ISS so it can then be released once it is exposed to the vacuum of space. Some researchers are considering using zeolite to capture CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, then compress it and store it in a nearby geological facility. Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicates typically formed by a chemical reaction between volcanic glass and saline water.

But NASA is not the only place using zeolite, as one of the largest organic certified wine-producing farms in Tuscany, Italy, Col d’Orcia, has taken to using zeolite in their soil to combat climate change.

Col d’Orcia Wine Estate in Tuscany

Family owner and chairman, Count Francesco Marone Cinzano, discussed how sustainable farming and encouraging biodiversity had always been important to his father (who bought this centuries-old historic farming estate in 1973) even before such terms were even discussed in the wine world.

And it is a place of pride for Francesco that his family owns the fantastic wine estate of Col d’Orcia in the highly regarded area of Montalcino, in the stunning region of Tuscany. When he speaks about Montalcino, one quickly forgets that he is there to represent one estate as his utter reverence for Montalcino as a whole is evident in the amount of time and passion he devotes to explaining why it is one of the most incredible places on Earth. One cannot help but believe him as he describes how 50% of the land is covered by natural woodland and Mediterranean scrub while the rest is vineyards and farms that include olive trees, grains, honey and truffles. Its magnificent beauty was one of the reasons his father, who was from another prestigious Italian wine region called Piedmont, fell so deeply in love that he invested tons of resources and time into an area that was still unknown worldwide in the 1970s.

Francesco, who inherited the desire to keep balance and harmony with nature from his father, has made his own contributions to the estate by transforming the vineyards to organic farming in 2008, eventually becoming certified. He also notes that his estate is a working farm with chickens, sheep and goats, and much of the estate is preserved woodland where wild boar and deer roam. The sheep and goats graze on the forest, keeping it from getting too overgrown and the chickens are used for eggs and meat for the families living and working on the estate.

Yet when it comes to the philosophy of sustainability, Francesco says that it can only truly exist at any company if the employees have good working conditions. “In Italy, unfortunately, 70% of the work contracts in agriculture do not comply with workers’ security and workers’ rights,” noted Francesco, and he feels an obligation as someone who is “lucky” to produce high-end wines to “show the way.”

Nature & Technology 

There are some biodynamic practices and preparations employed, but Francesco admits that they cannot be completely biodynamic as it is impossible to strictly follow the biodynamic calendar with such a big estate as they cannot prune all the vineyards only on specific days – they just have too much to prune. Some of the biodynamic preparations Francesco uses contain zeolite in it, as zeolite is not only used by NASA to capture CO2 but there are experiments on the ISS that involve growing plants in zeolite-based substrates. As space travel advances in the future, astronauts will need to be able to grow their own food in space if they want to make the trip to Mars, for example. Since zeolite has a “special hydroponic quality,” it can retain humidity and water during the winter and release it during higher temperatures in the summer, improving the soil’s water retention capacity and combating drought years. As Brunello di Montalcino is experiencing warmer and drier vintages, water scarcity is becoming more common.

The Col d’Orcia label displays this commitment to both nature and technology that was first started with Francesco’s father, as three rows represent the hills overlooking the Orcia River – a commitment to Mother Nature. On top of those three rows is a hand pointing to the stars representing their relentless pursuit of finding better ways to protect her.

And it all started when Francesco’s father visited the estate 50 years ago. He was so taken by the paradise of Montalcino, an unknown area back then, because an abundance of produce grew there. During that first visit, he came upon an old oak tree that was stunning in its majestic appearance and as he stood underneath it, a unique energy pulsated through his body. Despite this tree being in an area where it was best to plant the vineyards, he spared this beauty as it would be the monument that would remind him to be true to the natural diversity that initially captured his heart. Yet he could have never imagined that many decades later, a natural substance that could one day make traveling to Mars possible would help his beloved farming estate continue to thrive during intense challenges as the climate changes.

**Link to original Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathrinetodd/2023/04/20/tuscany-wine-producer-uses-nasa-know-how-to-combat-climate-change-in-the-vineyards/

2017 Col d’Orcia, Brunello di Montalcino DOCG: 100% Sangiovese. The nose gives juicy, rich fruit such as cassis and black cherry preserves with notes of broken rocks and round tannins on the palate with hints of nutmeg and pressed flowers.

2016 Col d’Orcia, Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, Vigna Nastagio: 100% Sangiovese from a single vineyard cru. Deep, dark fruits on the nose with flavors of blackberry scones with an intense minerality; elegant on the palate with chiseled tannins that give structure to the pristine fruit with hints of spice and overall harmony and a very long finish.

2015 Col d’Orcia, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG, Poggio al Vento: 100% Sangiovese from a single vineyard cru. The Poggio al Vento single vineyard is mainly sandy soil as opposed to clay which is dominant in the rest of the Col d’Orcia vineyards. Smoldering earth, cured meats, nutmeg with a slightly firm structure, black cherries and sandalwood incense with hints of tobacco leaf with a long, linear finish.

That dreadful anxiety started to rear its ugly head as the European woman got closer to her destination but seeing the various shades of green that went on forever, only momentarily broken up by the mountain peaks, gave her the courage to continue. Her heart stopped! “What was that sound?!” she muttered to herself. Then her mind began to race. Was it something falling out of the numerous trees? What fell? Did something step on a twig? What was that something? An animal? Or a person hunting? But then, all of a sudden, she could see in the distance some indigenous women with sticks piercing their cheeks and lips. “I need to stop breathing so loud,” the European lady said inside her head as she tried to slowly inhale and exhale as her heart seemed to want to burst within her chest. “Should I be here? Am I doing more harm than good?” But then all doubts subsided as she became engrossed with these pure beings untouched by greed and corruption, although being unaffected by the outside world was no longer going to be the case.

Many years after that moment, Alain Dominique Perrin, the man who is known for saving Cartier, the watchmaker and jeweler, honored this woman, artist and activist Claudia Andujar, for her over 50 years of service in protecting the indigenous people, the Yanomami, in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and Venezuela. 

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, in collaboration with The Shed in New York City, is currently showing the largest exhibition of Claudia Andujar’s photographs showing the Yanomami tribes, one of Brazil’s largest indigenous groups, which is remarkable considering that contact with outsiders had been forbidden for centuries especially considering that slave-hunters wiped out other indigenous societies during the early 1600s to the early 1700s.

At the beginning of February, Alain Dominique Perrin was there at the opening of this exhibition on behalf of Cartier to pay homage to a woman who based her life on preserving a way of life for peaceful people who lived in complete harmony with their surroundings. But he was also in New York City for his own personal passion, to talk about his wines from the 15th-century Château Lagrézette estate, in South West France, which took him over 20 years to restore.

Outsiders: To Trust Or Not To Trust

At the tender age of 24, Claudia Andujar moved from Switzerland to Brazil where she picked up a camera for the first time. Her first language was French so she found it easier to communicate with others through her photos. Her pictures were published in top international magazines such as Life, but in the early 1970s, at around 40, she traveled to Yanomami territory to observe the Yanomami people. She innately knew that she would be a mistrusted presence so she decided to make the shocking decision to live there for a year without taking any photographs as she wanted to get to know the Yanomami people and build trust among them.

Claudia’s journey seemed like a crazy one with the potential for so much peril and the unbelievable journey of Alain Dominique Perrin, restoring a massive château with its long-neglected vineyards, seemed equally crazy to those in the luxury world who knew him. The multi-generational locals in the tiny town of Caillac, with only around 600 residences, within the wine area of Cahors, where Alain’s beloved Château Lagrézette is located, looked at him with the same distrust Claudia faced with the Yanomani people. Alain was “the establishment,” he noted, and just like other wine regions in France, such as Burgundy, outsiders who buy wine estates force property values up, significantly increasing taxes, making it impossible for future generations to take over family businesses. The people from the cities were seen as ruining the lives of those who were people of the land in the country.

Yet just like Claudia, Alain’s devotion to restoring, and not destroying, was unwavering, as the painful restoration of Château Lagrézette included every little nook as well ancient cups and such within the château, not to mention bringing the soil back to life. Yet Claudia’s role was more about preserving what lived in those rainforests – Mother Nature would handle the restoration.

The Rest of the World taking Notice 

As Claudia built trust among the Yanomani people, she photographed over two decades of a dictatorship opening up the Amazon to mining and the aggressive deforestation of the rainforests that would bring multiple diseases, such as a measles epidemic that killed many of the Yanomami people. Her photos showed the world of such atrocities so the military banned her from visiting the Yanomami people. A Yanomani leader and shaman sought out Claudia to see why she was causing the government so much fear and once they met, she told him that her people were killed with many others by a brutal government, and so, the shaman knew that he could trust her. Her family were Jews who were sent to concentration camps in Poland and Germany, none of whom survived, so she carried a crippling amount of guilt because she couldn’t save them, even though she was only a child at the time. If she couldn’t save her family, she would try to save the Yanomani.  

As Claudia was first establishing her relationship with the Yanomami people in the early 1970s, Cartier found itself in bad times with the Cartier family no longer involved in the business. Alain Dominique Perrin was considered a young rising star at Cartier and within a matter of a few years, was leading a strategy based on the finest materials and most skilled artisans to make Cartier one of the most highly prized jewelers in the world. He also declared war on counterfeit luxury goods on the market through the media which included setting fake merchandise ablaze. 

When Alain’s name is mentioned among certain circles in France, one might hear such phrases as, “he is a God,” as he was one of the leading players that brought prestige back to Cartier, creating jobs and revenue for France as well as being a point of pride for the French people. And Alain created Fondation Cartier, the same entity honoring Claudia Andujar’s life work with exhibitions of her photos worldwide. 

But his Cartier legacy is not something that he can pass down to his five children and so he took on another herculean task – the restoration of Château Lagrézette, with vineyards that have documentation, according to Alain, that date back to the 1500s. Like Cartier, throughout everything with Château Lagrézette, he tenaciously wouldn’t accept anything but the best, regarding the castle, the land and the wines, as anything less is not in his DNA. 

“When I started, I had a lot of enemies, and now, I have a lot of friends,” Alain said when talking about his relationships with the locals of Caillac. Just like Claudia Andujar, her mission was to protect the indigenous and their way of life with the privilege and talent she brought with her and the same can be said for Alain. It may seem impossible to get notoriety and success in Caillac, France, while also protecting the local families and their legacies – but if it can be done, there is no better person than the man who brought Cartier from the brink of despair to one of the most prestigious names in the world. 

***Link to original Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathrinetodd/2023/03/09/the-man-who-saved-cartier-is-now-saving-an-ancient-wine-estate/

Château Lagrézette is located in the tiny town of Caillac in the Lot department in South West France, and all of the wines below, except the rosé, may use the Cahors wine appellation. 

2021 Roseberry, Rosé: 100% Malbec from limestone and clay soils. Lots of stony minerality with white strawberry and a hint of raspberry flavors.

2018 Seigneur de Grezette: 85% Malbec and 15% Merlot from plots with silt-clay and gravel soils with 20-year-old vines. Broken rocks, blackcurrants, fresh sage and black raspberry with fine tannins and a spicy finish. 

2019 Chevalier du Château Lagrézette: 100% Malbec from the third terrace on the estate in Kimmeridgian limestone from 30-year-old vines. Tobacco leaf and tree bark on the nose and juicy cassis on the palate with a good weight with an overall elegant shape. 

2016 Château Lagrézette: 100% Malbec from the third terrace of the property with limestone and clay vineyards from 35-year-old vines. A dark and deliciously decadent wine balanced by dried herbs and earthy notes with a silky texture. 

2015 Château Lagrézette: 100% Malbec from the third terrace of the property with limestone and clay vineyards from 35-year-old vines. Vibrant with minty aromas and hints of fresh blackberries with lots of complexity with notes of leather, tar and lots of structure, giving it lift on the finish. 

2018 Paragon: 100% Malbec from an exceptional vineyard known as Landiech with soils made up of gravel and clay from very low-yielding grapes. Charming nose of violets and blueberry fruit with layers of delectable flavors such as cinnamon roll and licorice with finely-laced tannins with an overall finesse. 

2015 Le Pigeonnier: 100% Malbec from an outstanding isolated section of a vineyard that produces powerful fruit from 35-year-old vines. Opaque color with dark, brooding fruit that draws one into the glass with black cherry cobbler, smoldering cigar and cedar aromas along the muscularly shaped body with a very long and flavorful finish.