Ely Callaway Dies

Wines & Vines, August, 2001

* Ely Callaway, who founded Callaway Vineyard and Winery in 1974, died on July 5. He was 82. Callaway sold the winery in 1981 to Hiram Walker and began another business, Callaway Golf Co. His company developed the "Big Bertha" driver, which put a little more poop into the tee shots of mediocre golfers.

Shortly after founding the winery in the Temecula area of Southern California, Callaway "discovered" Botrytis cinerea in Southern California. The late Leon Adams reported on his tour of the Callaway vineyards and recalled Callaway said some kind of rot now was on his Chenin blanc wines (he had had his Riesling vines, also affected by Botrytis, hauled away for distilling material!).

Adams took a lug of the Chenin back home and showed the bunches to the late Andre Tchelistcheff, who reportedly said "great Botrytis."

The Chenin grapes thus were saved from the fate of the Riesling and "Sweet Nancy," a late-harvest wine named for his wife, was born.