Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancrof t Library Berkeley, California California Wine Industry Oral History Project in conjunction with The Wine Spectator California Winemen Oral History Series Andre' Tchelistcheff GRAPES, WINE, AND ECOLOGY With an Introduction by Maynard A. Amerine An Interview Conducted by Ruth Teiser and Catherine Harroun in 1979 Copyright @ 1983 by The Regents of the University of California All uses of this .manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the University of California and ~ndrkTchelistcheff dated June 19, 1980. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with ~ndr; Tchelistcheff requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Andre' Tchelistcheff, "Grapes, Wine, and Ecology," an oral history conducted 1979 by Ruth Teiser and Catherine Harroun, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California. 1983. Copy No. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE April 7, 1994 tion process now used widely in Amdca. -In 1990, he was named Andre Tchelistcheff producing wbite and rose whes. Wine Man of the Year at the Wine .He developed . frost-prevention Industry .Technical Symposium in - He Helped Build : techniques and helped curb vine Rohnert Park. disease in Nap Valley. The memorial service will be Among , Stote Wine Industry the most influential held Monday at 11 a.m. at St. winemakers in the country, Mr. Mary's Episcopal Church, 1917 A memorial service wlll be held Tchelistcheff spoke candidly Third Street, Napa. Burial will be Monday for Andre Tchelistcheff, about the mass marketing and private. 92, an intemationalIy reepected commercialism that crept into the vintner and leader in the Califor- industry over the years. nia wine industry for more than. In 1901, Chronicle writer Sam! half a century. Whiting wrote of him, 'Wa palate MF. ~chelistcheffdied TuMay was so refined he could tell by at Queen of the Valley Hospital in taste whether a wine came from Napa. He had recently undergone Rutherford dust, Oalrville dirt ar a surgery at the hospital for the re- furrow in between." moval of a stomach tumor, accord- At that time, .Mr.TcheMcheff ing to a hospital official. commented, "Money is the dust of Widely considered the dean of ,,.life.I don't have a wine cellar, I American winemakern, Mr. Tchel- don't have a vineyard. I don't have istcheff was a mentor to *e in- nothing. I only have my head!' dustry giants such as Robert Mon- Hb continuing preeminence davi and Louis Martini. was demonstrated in 1992 when he He was vice president of Beau: blended red wine donated by 105 lieu Vineyards in Napa for 35 years wineries of .Napa, into a special until his retirement in 1973, four barrel or "unity lot!' years after sale of Beaulieu to A Russian..native, Mr. Tchel- Heublein Inc. He also assembled a istcheff served in the anti-Commu- fabled library of wine literature. nlst White Army during the Rus- Besides ranaging Beauliec sian civil war of 1918-21, and was Mr. Tchelistcheff operated a prl- left for dead on the battlefield af- vate wine laboratory in St. Helena ter his unit was machine-gunned for 15years. Later, he c~ntinuedto during a snowstorm. His father share his expertise as a consultant held a funeral for him. for Beaulieu and dozens of other However, he and his family Na~aand Sonoma wineries. eventually fled to France, where Tchelistcheff created the he studied agronomy before meet- first worldclass California caber- -,ing Beaulieuwho owner mGeorges tmome de La- b nets at Beaulieu Vineyards after the end of the Prohibition era. and the united States in 19B, developed the winery's "pdvate In 1954, the French govern- reserve" appellation. There, he al- ment honored him for bringing so pioneered the cold-ferments-- French quality memaking to_ CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY INTERVIEWS Interviews Completed by 1984 Leon D. Adam Revitalizing the California Wine Industry 1974 Maynard A. Amerine The University of California and the State's wine Industry 1971 Philo Biane Wine Making in Southern California and Recollections of Fruit Industries, Inc. 1972 . Burke H. ~ritchfield,Carl F. Wente, and Andrew G. rer ricks The California Wine Industry During the Depression 1972 William V. Cruess A Half Century of Food and Wine Technology 1967 Alfred Fromm Marketing California Wine and Brandy 1984 Maynard A. Joslyn A Technologist Views the California Wine Industrg 1974 Horace 0. Lanza and Harry Baccigaluppi California Grape Products and Other Wine Enterprises 1971 Louis M. Martini and. Louis P. Martini Winemakers of the Napa Valley 1973 Louis P. Martini A Family Winerg and the California Wine Industrg 1984 Otto E. Meyer California Premiwn Wines and Bmndy 1973 Harold P. Olmo Plant Genetics and New Gmpe Varieties 1976 Antonio Perelli-Minetti A Life in Wine Making 1975 Louis A. Petri The Petri Family in the Wine Industry 1971 Jefferson E. Peyser The Lm and the California Wine Industry 1974 Lucius Powers The Fresno Area and the California Wine Industrg 1974 Victor Repetto and Sydney J. Block Perspectives on California Wines 1976 Edmund A. Rossi Italian Swiss Colony and the Wine Industry 1971 A. Setrakian A Leader of the San Joaquin Valley Grape Industry 1977 Andre' Tchelistchef f Grapes, Wine, and Ecology 1983 Brother Timothy The Christian Brothers as Winemakers 1974 Ernest A. Wente Wine Making in the Livermore Valley 1971 Albert J. Winkler Viticultural Research at UC Davis (1921 - 1971) 1973 ACKNOWLEGEMENT On behalf of future scholars, the Regional Oral History Office wishes to thank the friends and associates of Andre'~che1istcheffwhose names are listed below. Their combined contributions have made possible the production of this oral history. Chalone Vineyard Rene di Rosa Soledad, California Napa, California Firestone Vineyard Schramsberg Vineyards and Cellars Los Olivos, California Calistoga, California Grgich Hills Cellar Sam J. Sebastiani, Sebastiani Vineyards Rutherford, California Sonoma, California Catherine Harroun Simi Winery, Inc. San Francisco, California Healds burg, California Heitz Wine Cellars Stony Hill Vineyard St. Helena, California St. Helena, California Hoffman Mountain Ranch Vineyards United Vintners, Inc. Paso Robles, California San Francisco, California Louis M. Martini Winery Wine Industry Technical Seminar St. Helena, California San Francisco, California Ste. Michelle Vineyards The Wine Spectator California Woodinville, Washington Scholarship Foundation New York, New York Robert Mondavi Winery Oakville, California TABLE OF CONTENTS -- ~ndr6Tchelistcheff PREFACE INTRODUCTION by Maynard A. Amerine iii INTERVIEW HISTORY I EARLY LIFE IN RUSSIA AND EUROPE The Tchelistcheff Name and Family The Beginning of the Russian Revolution Early Education and Army Service Education Resumed Working and Studying in France California and European Winemaking in the 1930s YEARS WITH BEAULIEU To New York and California Beaulieu and Georges de Latour: First Impressions California Wines of the Late 1930s European and American Points of View Winery Practices of the Late 1930s The Churchill Property and Martin Stelling The de Latour Estate Technical Problems and Solutions University and Industry Leaders Young Men of the 1940s Industry Leaders, Continued Wine Industry Financing and Ownership The Sale of Beaulieu Major Technological Advances Vineyard Practices and Problems CONSULTANT TO THE WINE INDUSTRY Beginning a Third Career Working With New Wineries Importing European Viticulture and Enology Concepts of Appellat'ion of Origin Winemaking in Washington and Oregon California Wine Regions Recent Challenges Addendum TAPE GUIDE INDEX PREFACE The California wine industry oral history series, a project of the Regional Oral History Office, was initiated in 1969 through the action and with the financing of the Wine Advisory Board, a state marketing order organization which ceased operation in 1975. In 1983 it was reinstituted as The Wine Spectator California Winemen Oral History Series with donations from The Wine Spectator California Scholarship Foundation. The selection of those to be interviewed is made by a committee consisting of James D. Hart, director 'of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; John A. De Luca, president of the Wine Institute, the statewide winery organization; Maynard A. Amerine, Emeritus Professor of Viticulture and Enology , university of California, Davis; the chairman of the board of directors of the Wine Institute, who is elected ,annually; Ruth Teiser, series project director, and Marvin R. Shanken, trustee of The Wine Spectator California Scholarship Foundation. The purpose of the series is to record and preserve information on California grape growing and wine making that has existed only in the memories of wine men. In some cases their recollections go back to the early years of this century, before Prohibition. These recollections are of particular value because the Prohibition period saw the disruption of not only the industry itself but also the orderly recording and preservation of records of its activities. Little has been written about the industry from late in the last century until Repeal. There is a real paucity of information on the Prohibition years (1920-1933), although some commercial wine making did continue under supervision of the Prohibition Department. The material in this series on that period, as well as the discussion of the remarkable development of the wine industry in subsequent years (as yet treated analytically in few writings) will be of aid to historians.