Thanks to Georges and Fernande de Latour’s renowned business savvy, BV came through Prohibition stronger than ever. When the amendment was finally repealed, the pair went in search of a winemaker who could evolve their winery into the model of quality they had always dreamed of. In France, Georges met André Tchelistcheff, a young artisan who would not only propel BV to global fame but become a legend of California winemaking.
André Tchelistcheff
The Maestro
André, a Russian émigré, was working as a professor in France at the time. He had many offers on the table from renowned European wineries, but he and Georges just clicked. Drawn to the endless possibilities the relatively young California winemaking industry offered, he moved to Napa Valley in 1938.
André worked as lead winemaker at BV until 1971. After 17 years as a consulting winemaker, he returned to BV to celebrate the 50th vintage of our flagship Georges del Latour Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon.
Aways up for a new challenge, even at the age of 89, he rejoined the winery in 1990 to collaborate with winemaker Joel Aiken to reinvent BV’s wines and processes for a new era. Among their innovations was research into wine aging based on those 50 historic GDL vintages, instituting French oak aging for red wines, and crafting a small-lot Pinot Noir, named Maestro, in André’s honor.
How André shaped our winemaking
When André Tchelistcheff arrived in Napa, he and the de Latours were excited to shake things up. Along with being a highly respected winemaker, André was also a meticulous microbiologist, who built his own lab, including a microscope, a unique tool in 1930s California wine country. André’s list of accomplishments is long, but these are a few of the key changes he implemented, things that became standard practice across Napa fine wine.
At the winery, he experimented with small-lot fermentation, built a cool room to ferment white wines, and established malolactic fermentation for red wines. In the vineyards, he improved cultivation and pruning and instituting time-honored European methods. Because of his passion for Pinot Noir, he also expanded BV’s winegrowing to Carneros in 1961.
André formed relationships with winemaking and growing scholars at UC Davis, and 1947, opened the Napa Valley Enological Research Laboratory and Napa Valley Enological Center to promote continuing education for everyone in the wine industry. He not only mentored winemakers at BV for decades, but many of the most influential future winery founders across the region.
