On November 15, 2023, we had a chance to interview and catch up with Trevor Durling. Trevor is the winemaker for Beaulieu Vineyard, aka BV, and Hewitt Vineyard. In our Zoom interview, we covered seven of his new-release 2020 vintage BV wines and his 2020 Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon. We interviewed Trevor last November to explore his background and cover his 2019 vintage wines. Check out what we learned from Trevor this year.
Before we get to the wine reviews, I thought I would share a few new tidbits we learned this year during the tasting with Trevor.
- 2023 Vintage is about quality and volume.
- 2023 is three times bigger than 2022.
- 2023 is even bigger than 2018. It reminded him of the 2005 vintage.
- 2021 Hewitt bottling will need to lay down for a while.
- We had a 2021 Beaulieu Vineyard Pinot Noir “Reserve” prior to the tasting. We score it 92 points and called it a Cab drinkers Pinot. Trevor laughed and called 2021 a “rich” vintage.
- The Pinot grapes come from the Sonoma side of Carneros. Grace Benoit, an Etude vineyard.
- We noticed Charbono and Touriga Nacional in the Napa Valley Cab. Trevor said this grapes come from Ranch 12 in Calistoga. That 20 acre section of the vineyard is called the fruit salad.
- Rutherford Reserve gets its grapes from BV1, BV2 and a little Hewitt.
- Madame de Latour grapes come from Coombsville. It’s a cooler site.
- Since 1964 Hewitt has been a significant part of Georges de Latour Private Reserve.
- 2000 was the first vintage of a Hewitt Cab.
Below is a summary of the seven Beaulieu Vineyard wines and the single Hewitt wine that we covered with Trevor. The links below are to our full reviews. If you are interested in ordering and trying these wines, you will find many of these wines via your favorite fine wine shop or on top quality wines lists. You can also purchase the BV wines directly from the Wineshop.com website after they are released. As for the Hewitt wines you can purchase them on the Hewitt website. If you want first dibs on all their wines, you could consider joining their clubs.
1. Beaulieu Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon “Napa Valley” $39 (KWGTP 91.5)
2. Beaulieu Vineyard 2020 Merlot “Reserve” $75 (KWGTP 93)
3. Beaulieu Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon “Rutherford Reserve” $80 (KWGTP 93)
4. Beaulieu Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon “Clone 4” $190 (KWGTP 94)
5. Beaulieu Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon “Clone 6” $190 (KWGTP 95)
6. Beaulieu Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon “Georges de Latour Private Reserve” (Napa Valley) $160 (KWGTP 95)
7. Beaulieu Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon “Madame de Latour” (Napa Valley) $190 (KWGTP 95)
8. Hewitt Vineyard 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon “Rutherford” $150 (KWGTP 94.5)
You can find reviews of past and future Beaulieu & Hewitt Vineyard wines that we cover on the KWG Beaulieu Vineyard and the KWG Hewitt Vineyard winery pages on our website. We hope you enjoy these terrific wines as much as we did. Cheers! – Ken