Tchelistcheff, Andre

▪ 1995

      Russian-born U.S. enologist (b. 1901, Moscow, Russia—d. April 5, 1994, Napa, Calif.), was a pivotal figure in the revitalization of the California wine industry following Prohibition (1919-33) and used his Paris training in viticulture and wine making to pioneer such techniques as cold fermentation and the use of American oak barrels for aging. He was also an authority on the types of soil suitable for growing various grape varieties. Tchelistcheff, who served in the White Russian army during the Allied armies' retreat through the Crimea to Gallipoli, left the service in 1923, when he enrolled at the University of Brno, Czech., to study agronomy. He later continued his studies in Paris at the National Agronomy Institute and also worked in the champagne cellars of Moët & Chandon. A diminutive figure with a pronounced accent, Tchelistcheff was also distinguished by his Old World mannerisms and savoir faire. Hired by Georges de Latour, owner of the Beaulieu Vineyard in California's Napa Valley, where he worked from 1938 to 1973 and again from 1991 until his death, Tchelistcheff made Latour's Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon the best-selling wine of its kind in the United States.

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