Winery Founder’s Vintage Cadillac Will Cruise Napa Valley Once Again

SAN FRANCISCO — For 40 years, Beaulieu Vineyard founder Georges de Latour’s old Cadillac moldered anonymously in a dark corner of a Napa Valley barn, just another relic.

Today, the 63-year-old Imperial Sedan is a wine country celebrity with a bright future.

Beaulieu President Tom Selfridge vows to restore the eight-passenger machine to its former grandeur as a resurrected symbol of the man whose genius made Beaulieu a distinguished name in the wine world.

“I was so excited when I heard of it, all I could think was we had to restore Latour’s car and return it to Beaulieu, where it belongs,” Selfridge said as the Cadillac was towed out of the Al Abruzzini barn, 10 miles south of Beaulieu headquarters.

Like a kid with a new toy, Selfridge jumped into the forest-green car, filled with cobwebs and caked with dirt, as it was towed into the sunshine.

“I haven’t had this much fun in ages,” he chuckled. “The car’s brakes still work and it steers just fine.”

The squarish vehicle was transported to a secret location on Beaulieu property to await restoration. “It’s secret because we don’t want it to be vandalized,” said Beaulieu spokeswoman Faith Greaves.

The car surfaced at a retirement party at the ranch last year for Beaulieu warehouse foreman Bob Branch. Abruzzini’s daughter, Cindy, mentioned that the old Caddy was in the barn, and Selfridge immediately plunged in to take a look.

Latour, a Frenchman, established Beaulieu in 1900. In 1925, selling sacramental wine, Latour drowned his Prohibition sorrows by buying the Cadillac for $4,950.

The original pink slip reveals that Latour paid $3.40 for registration and licensing.

According to the winery, Latour drove the car for 16 years, and a few months before World War II gave it to his rancher friend, Eugene Defillipis, for a handshake.

The machine was used for years after, often as a tractor because of its power, and occasionally driven up steep hills for wild game hunting.