In the last quarter century of ownership, Beaulieu Vineyard has changed hands many times over, but the one constant has been Joel Aiken.
Rutherford ~ Napa Valley (AVA)
The Future Looks Bright for Historic Beaulieu Vineyard: An interview with Joel Aiken
"...we were very proud of the wines we’ve produced throughout our history. People loved them."
by
Alan Goldfarb
October 3, 2006
As with professional athletes, there aren’t many winemakers who can say they’ve been with one club/winery for their entire career. Like jocks, many winemakers flit from winery to winery like mercenaries going after the next big contract or next big thing.
Not Joel Aiken. He has recently celebrated his 24th year at
Beaulieu Vineyard on Highway 29 in
Rutherford. There aren’t more than a handful of athletes -- or winemakers for that matter -- who come close to that kind of long-term commitment.
In that time, Aiken has come under the aegis of more than a few supervisors in what has seemed like a revolving door of big companies that have owned BV over the last quarter-century. In that time, Aiken has toiled under Heublein which begat International Distillery & Vintners, that begat United Distilleries and Vintners, which became Seagrams, and finally renamed Diageo.
The name 'Beaulieu Vineyard' is perhaps a misnomer. Actually, Beaulieu, under Aiken’s guidance, oversees about 1,100 acres in the Napa Valley, comprising eight different vineyards over four different American Viticuture sub-areas (AVA). In all, BV has three vineyards totaling 320 acres, each in the
Carneros and in
Rutherford; and one in
St. Helena (110 acres) and in Calistoga (340 acres). All that fruit goes into producing approximately 400,000 cases a year.
In a recent conversation with Appellation America’s Napa Valley correspondent Alan Goldfarb, Aiken, BV’s Vice President of Winemaking, talked about his career at BV and about the Rutherford region’s terroir character. He was also asked to respond to Jim Laube’s recent comments (“The Thrill is Gone",
Wine Spectator, Aug. 31, 2006) about BV and its perceived TCA issues (trichloroanisole more commonly known as cork taint). Laube wrote about the winery’s reserve wine, Georges de Latour: “While the winery says these problems are behind it, I’ve yet to taste a recent vintage on par with the best from the early to the mid-1990s.” Our own, Alan Goldfarb begs to differ as evidenced by his
review of the 2003 Beaulieu Vineyard ‘Georges de Latour’ Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley.
Alan Goldfarb (AG): You no doubt have seen many corporate philosophies and cultures during your tenure at BV.
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