Tasting Notes:
Approachable now but can rest for 4-5 years and will last for 20-30 years. With immense concentration, our 2007 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon opens with blackberry, cassis and black plum aromas, with mocha, black licorice, graphite and spicy oak nuances. On the palate, these complex notes echo through the expansive, dark-fruit flavors. The texture is dense and rich, framed by muscular, yet velvety, tannins that ensure even more complexity with bottle aging. This is our flagship wine, worthy of pouring for life’s most important celebrations.

Ratings:
Robert Parker 95 Points -- The phenomenal 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve Georges de Latour is the greatest BV Private Reserve made since the 1970 and 1968. The good news is 11,000 cases were produced. The return of this superb Napa classic is fabulous news, and the brilliance of this wine is evidenced by its opaque purple color and its big, sweet, blackberry, cassis, subtle smoke, graphite, and spicy oak-scented nose. Dense and full-bodied with sweet but substantial tannins, thrilling levels of concentration, texture, and richness, and a heady finish, this wine will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age, and last three decades or more. It's time to once again fill your cellars with the BV Private Reserve, one of the historic names in California wine folklore.

Vineyard Notes:
This wine showcases our finest Cabernet Sauvignon vines, which are deeply rooted in the well-draining alluvial fan soils of Napa Valley’s Rutherford American Viticultural Area. More specifically, it captures the beautifully balanced characteristics of our BV Ranches No. 1 and No. 2, originally planted by Georges de Latour in the early 1900s. More than a century of growing grapes on the Rutherford Bench gives us the knowledge we need to match the best rootstocks, clones and cultivation techniques to this exceptional site.

Winemaker Notes:
Gentle handling, including hand sorting, pre-fermentation maceration and fermentation in a combination of small barrels and open-top fermentors, contributed to the wine’s richness, depth of flavor and supple tannins. In-barrel malolactic fermentation followed by 20 months of aging seamlessly integrated the flavors. Then, Winemaker Jeffrey Stambor and renowned consultant Michel Rolland artistically blended this award-winning wine.

Other Notes:
Ideal conditions throughout the 2007 growing season made for a smooth and easy harvest of phenomenal quality. Napa Valley’s famous night fog persisted during ripening, retaining bright grape acidity, while the moderately sunny days developed ripe flavors. The varietals ripened in textbook order, with late-maturing Cabernet Sauvignon wrapping up the harvest from late September to mid-October. Mother Nature dealt us a good hand for crafting beautifully balanced, opulent wines.