Beaulieu Vineyards in Rutherford, CA

How can you resist a wine called Beauzeaux? (Say it aloud.) There is such a wine, a member of the Beaulieu Vineyard Signet Collection – a small group of limited production wines which was introduced by Beaulieu Vineyards (Rutherford, CA) in 1995. The first Beauzeaux release was the 1996 vintage in spring 1998. The most recent, the 1999, was sent to market on April Fool’s day, though there is nothing foolish about the wine.


“The concept and origin of the name are lost in the mists of time,” says Joel Butler, Master of Wine and national manager for education and press relations at Beaulieu. “It is always a most unusual blend of grape varieties, and I think we just felt we wanted a playful way of highlighting it.”

The blend has been, from the beginning, predominantly Zinfandel – about 42%. The remaining 58% is made up of small quantities of grapes traditionally grown in the Mediterranean area. The blend in the first vintage was Charbono, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Valdiguié (Napa Gamay) and Carignane. The following year it was Charbono, Petite Sirah, Valdiguié, Carignane, Lagrein, and Cabernet Franc. Lagrein, a totally new grape to me, is noted in the Italian province of Bolzano for the dry fresh rosé it can produce. The next year there was another eclectic assortment of grapes: Valdiguié, Charbono, Petite Sirah, Primitivo, and Grenache. That brings us to the current blend of Valdiguié, Charbono, Petite Sirah, Primitivo and Lagrein, along with the usual Zinfandel.

As you can imagine, finding even small quantities of such old-fashioned grapes cannot be easy, but Joel says Beaulieu has been fortunate enough to find local growers who planted a few acres of each variety as an experiment, and are delighted and surprised to find a market for them.

Total production each year is about 3600 cases, which sell fast, and, Joel advises Beauzeaux be consumed relatively quickly as well, estimating that it is best consumed before it is four years old.