Beaulieu winemaker in the '70s - early '80s?

My understanding is that André Tchelistcheff was fired/left in 1973 after Heublein bought the winery circa 1968. I’ve read on this forum (yes I did a search first) that Richard Peterson (father of Heidi Barrett) was his hand-picked successor and was the de facto winemaker from 1968-1974. Beaulieu’s own recounting of its history mentions Joel Aiken as the winemaker who followed Tchelistcheff, but that doesn’t appear to be accurate, and from what I’ve read Aiken was hired by BV in '82 but didn’t become winemaker until '85. So who actually made the wines between '74 and '85? Unfortunately, I have yet to try a Tchelistcheff-era GdT, but I recently opened a '73 and '74 and even though fills were into neck and corks were pristine, both were dead, murky and maderized (the '73 slightly less so and was drinkable but the '74 was horrid). I know the '74 in particular suffers from notorious bottle variation and is underwhelming compared to many other '74s. This is my birthyear so I’ve been fortunate to try excellent bottles of Monte Bello, Conn Creek, Mayacamas, Sterling Reserve, and Mondavi Reserve, among others, which made the BV GdT that much more disappointing. Since I also own some '77, '79 and '85 GdTs, I’m curious about who was at the helm during this transition period, and whether there is any hope for these remaining bottles.

In the 80s, I recall a comment circulated about that 1974 BV which claimed there were two releases, one problematic.

No help on the BV winemaker.

Coincidently, it appears that a rare BV by Tchelistcheff will be included in BerserkerDay next week.

Here is a start.

Tchelistcheff made the wine until his retirement from BV in 1973, 35 years later. The nine subsequent vintages were made by a rotation of interim winemakers according to the methods he had established. Current BV winemaker Joel Aiken, whom Tchelistcheff regarded as his successor, joined the winery in 1982 and was named head winemaker in ’86.

Thanks for summarizing, as I am not an LA Times subscriber. The “interim winemaker rotation” theory might explain the inconsistent quality during this period. I also highly doubt that Tshelistcheff had much of an impact on the '73 GdT since he left that year.

One other interesting tidbit I’ve read in a few places is that Tchelistcheff was operating on a shoestring budget so essentially all his resources went into the GdT and the rest of the BV wines suffered during his tenure.

Thanks Richard. I have heard the dual-release theory as well. I wish there was some way of knowing which was which. I have one more bottle of the '74, but since it was purchased from the same source as the first, I am not optimistic.

Thanks for the heads up about Berserker Day. I am guessing this will show up in the auction, and will be out of my non-baller league.

Dr. Richard Peterson?

Tom Selfridge

Or maybe somebody named Bell
Tom was GM

Their website says that the current winemaker, Trevor Durling, is the fifth winemaker in the history of the. 137 year history of the winery.
5/Trevor
4/Jeffrey Stambor
3/Joel A.
2/Dr Dick
1/Mr. T

Before Andre came onboard in the late thirties…did the wine make itself?? And if Dr Dick went to Monterey County in 1973 or so, then who made the wine until Joel was made head winemaker?? I think Tom Selfridge can take responsibility in many ways, and he always said he had been a winemaker. He spent 18 years there, then worked for KJ, Chalone, Hess and others.

Nice article by Rod Smith, RIP. He used to sit behind me at Giants games and interview the winemakers I brought with him. Sometimes he missed games because he was on a free trip to Portugal etc to taste wine etc.

An inside source confirms that Tom Selfridge made the wine at BV during the interim period between Peterson and Aiken.

FWIW, Dick Peterson was one of the board monitors of the AOL wine boards in the mid/late '90s and I vividly recall him saying once that one of the best smells he ever smelled was when he was making the '69 BV GdL, so one could certainly infer he was making the wine at that time.

I took a look at the autobiography of Dick Peterson,PhD and found a picture of three BV winemakers: Dick, Andre and Theo Rosenbrand. Dick says that he decided to leave BV in 1973. Theo would oversee winemaking until Tom Selfridge was ready to take over.

Dick’s story about the Heublein purchase of BV in 1969 is pretty depressing. The beancounters wanted to replace cabernet with gamay beaujolais.

I enjoyed the book very much. Some Gallo people say Dick exaggerated his role at Gallo. But his account of his days with Heublein and Coca Cola ring true. Dick thought he was doing well with Taylor of California until somebody pointed out that nothing was more probably than selling carbonated sugar water. for good money.

The beancounters wanted to replace cabernet with gamay beaujolais.

Maybe they had tried the '70 Joseph Swan- Gamay and didn’t realize that it was really Valdiguié?

I pity da fool dat don’t like the Mr. T wines.

A close family friend, Ward Thompson who unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago worked at BV starting in 1972 and retiring in 2003 always told me they Theo Rosenbrands contributions during and after the André years has always been extremely undervalued.he assumed the role that Joe Heitz had held until he left the winery.

I used to tell Andre how much I liked his Champagne. But he never said, I pity da fool dat don’t like Andre Champagne…he just smiled.

WhenAndre came back to consult at BV, he noted that they hadn’t changed anything, whereas he his winemaking ideas had changed.


The BV website admits but five winemakers in 137 years. The guy before Andre is ignored along with everyone between Dick and Joel.

Funny, Brad, I was thinking about that comment during this thread, too. I had posted a note on that wine, as I had tried it at Bruce Douglas’ old Cellar Orphan party back in 1998. It was the best wine of the night, in some pretty heavy company.