Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon - $125.99

Wine Details

Price: $125.99
Producer: Beringer Vineyards
Region: Napa Valley
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Container Size: 750 ML
Flavors: blackberries, creme de cassis, toasty oak, white chocolate
  • Award Winning
  • Red Wine
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Product Description

  • With Cabernet of this quality, Ed believes in taking a minimalist approach to winemaking. Vinifying the fruit from each vineyard separately, Ed and his long-time winemaking partner Laurie Hook used tailored pump-over techniques for optimal extraction, and then aged the wines in hand-selected, custom-toasted barrels of new French Nevers oak from coopers with whom they have long-established relationships. The winemakers put the wines through 100-percent malolactic fermentation for added complexity and softness, and aged them just over two years before Ed selected the blend that he felt layers the personalities of the vineyards into a harmonious whole. The final blend showcases aromas of black berries, toasty oak, mint, white pepper and cocoa. Black fruit, cassis, caramel, vanilla, brown spices and hints of rose petals coat the palate as ripe supple tannins extend throughout the long finish.
  • Beringer Vineyards was founded in 1868 by Jacob Beringer after he left his home in Mainz, Germany, to start a new life in the U.S. In 1870 he traveled by train from the East Coast, first to San Francisco and then on to Napa Valley. To his delight, he discovered rocky, well-drained soils similar to those in his native Rhine Valley. The volcanic soil was ideal for growing the same grapes found in Europe’‘s great winemaking regions. Best of all, the hills could be dug out to provide storage and aging tunnels that would maintain the constant temperature needed to produce fine wines. The tough task of hand-chiseling the tunnels in the mountainside behind the winery fell to Chinese workers who had returned to the Bay Area after helping build the Trans-Continental Railroad. Even today, the average 58°F temperature inside the tunnels makes them the ideal place to age their fine wines. Beringer Vineyards is the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley. Today the company receives its grapes from more than 14 different vineyards, each specific to a particular grape varietals. As of 2008 the vineyards head wine master is Ed Sbragia and its lead wine maker is Laurie Hook.

Expert Ratings

Ratings Vintage Source Flavors
Tanzer - 94 Details: ($115) Medium ruby. Welcoming aromas of black raspberry, chocolate and sexy oak. Lush, layered and sweet, with superb energy and depth to the black raspberry and bitter chocolate flavors. The longest on the aftertaste of these 2004 cabernets, finishing with very suave tannins and lovely aromatic persistence. 2004 Tanzer bitter, chocolate, oak, raspberry
2004 WineSpectator blackberry, cherry, currant, earth, mineral, oak, plum, smoky
2004 CGCW
Tanzer - 92 Details: ($115) Bright medium ruby. Sexy, complex nose melds currant, black raspberry, dark chocolate, minerals, flowers and incense-like spices. Lush, sweet and tactile, with noteworthy depth and inner-mouth aromatic character to its black fruit, mineral and floral flavors. Ripe acids give this a juicy quality and extend the flavors. The fine tannins dust the tongue and teeth. 2003 Tanzer black fruit, currant, dark chocolate, flowers, mineral, minerals, raspberry, spices
WineSpectator - 87 Details: Intense, with a spicy, chalky edge to the dried currant and sage notes. Trim and well-balanced, this is typical of the vintage in its austerity. Drink now through 2012. 10,200 cases made. –JL 2003 WineSpectator currant, sage, spicy
Tanzer - 94 Details: ($115) Good full ruby-red. Sexy aromas of currant and dark chocolate. Compellingly sweet and densely packed, with lovely vinosity giving shape to the flavors of dark berries, cedar and minerals. Very fine-grained and very long on the palate, with the tannins perfectly buffered by the wine's material. This wine, mostly from Steinhauer and St. Helena fruit, went into the barrel in January of 2003 and remained there for two years, undisturbed except for a monthly topping-up. Has the balance to offer considerable early appeal, but this bottling has a long track record for aging gracefully in bottle and surprising with its longevity. 2002 Tanzer berries, espresso, game, licorice
CGCW - 91 Details: Here is a big, beautifully ripened, definitively varietal opus that is brimming with deep, well-extracted fruit and decked out with a full measure of very sweet oak. Its precise focus and its wholly impeccable balance place it at the forefront of the pack, and it never once hints at heaviness or heat. While fairly tannic, it is not in the least tough, and its essential juiciness perseveres to the end. Those with a taste for young Cabernet will find lots to like even now, but the real beauty of this compelling wine will only emerge with five years of time. 2002 CGCW oak
WineSpectator - 88 Details: Quite loamy and earthy, yet there's a savory richness, with dried currant, sage and cedary oak flavors. Excellent balance and persistence. Best from 2008 through 2012. 14,200 cases made. –JL 2002 WineSpectator
WineAndSpirits - 91 Details: Ed Sbragia blends this wine from a selection of vineyards primarily on Howell Mountain and closer to the winery in St. Helena. On their own, these vineyards produce distinctive and ageworthy cabernets; Sbragia's selections of Chabot, Marston and Bancroft are among the top wines in the valley. The Private Reserve often blends away some of those distinctions, emphasizing winemaking style instead. To me, it often tastes like a well-heeled wine, glossy and easy to appreciate. This vintage goes beyond those straightforward charms. It starts off warm and fat, with spicy red berry flavors and a touch of bitterness in the tannin, then air begins to meld the fruit and structure, bringing complexity and a meaty richness. Check on it in ten years. 2002 WineAndSpirits currant, earthy, oak, sage
2002 WineEnthusiast bitter, blackberries, cherries, new oak, prune
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Food Pairings

Category Pairing
Red Meat Beef, Grilled Filet Mignon, Grilled Beef, Roast Beef

Awards and Accolades

  Name Vintage
Award Winner Silver - 2007 Decanter World Wine Awards 2004

Wine Terms

Name Value
Cabernet Sauvignon (cab er nay saw vee nyon)—This highly adaptable grape grows almost anywhere it is relatively warm, but the best wines come from the Burgundy region of France (where it is a noble variety), California, and Australia. It became famous through the red wines of the Médoc district of Bordeaux and is now grown in Washington, southern France, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina. Cabernet Sauvignon grapes make wines that are high in tannin and medium- to full-bodied. Usually identified as having black currant or cassis flavors, the grape can also possess vegetal tones when the grapes are less than ideally ripe. The best wines are rich and firm with great depth, and are often aged for fifteen years or more. Because it is highly tannic, Cabernet Sauvignon is often blended with other less-tannic grapes such as Merlot.
Napa This tiny strip of land just north of San Francisco is home to America’s most prestigious wineries. Its climate is ideal for viticulture. Ironically, it was deemed too ideal for some vintners, who have moved their vineyards from the valley’s flat plain to the hills in the east and west, adhering to the idea that grapes that struggle to grow yield better wine. The climate, soil, and individual wineries are enormously varied, so it’s impossible to identify a singular trait of Napa wines. In addition, nearly every noble grape is grown here, although Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are the primary grapes. In the past, Napa’s wines have alternated between extremely fruity and fat to lean and subtle. Today the best Napa wines have achieved a balance between these extremes. Many are made to be drunk young and have abundant ripe fruit; others can be initially hard and tannic, but soften over four or five years to perfumed, cedary fruit. White Napa wines are excellent with fresh-grilled fish and chicken, but can also cope with more spicy and creamy flavors. Many Napa reds will overwhelm delicate cuisine, but rich red meat and cheeses do make good companions.
United States Wineries exist in all fifty states, but the most predominant (and best) wine comes from Northern California, Oregon, and Washington State, with New York gaining a foothold in the industry. American wines make up about 75% of all wine sales in the US. The appellation system uses the term AVA (American Viticultural Area) to determine where wines were produced, but grape varieties can be planted anywhere in the country. American wineries generally use varietal labeling, and government regulations require that the variety on the label must make up at least 75% of the blend (in Oregon it’s 90%). The words reserve, special selection, private reserve, classic, and so on have no legal definition in the US. Some wineries use these terms to indicate their better wines; others use the words as a marketing tool to move lower quality wines off the shelf.
California California produces the majority of wine made in the United States. Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel and Pinot Noir dominate the wine production in California, but many other varietials thrive in the California climate. Many fine wines are produced in California using Mediterranean grapes.
Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Over the past few decades, the Napa Valley has become synonymous with award winning Cabernet Sauvignon. Originating from the Bordeaux region in France, Cabernet Sauvignon is truly wine's ambassador to the world. Now in the annals of wine history, this varietal put the Napa Valley on the map. There is a select set of conditions, often enjoyed in Napa, which makes for world class examples of the grape. These include long, sunny days in warm climates, in conjunction with porous, well draining soils.
Napa County Napa County is located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. At the north end of Napa County is the Bay Area's second tallest peak Mount Saint Helena, and to the far south of Napa County lays the section of the Napa Valley that bleeds into Carneros. When the first white settlers arrived in the early 1830s, there were six tribes in the valley speaking different dialects and they were often at war with each other. The Mayacomos tribe lived in the area where Calistoga was founded. Napa County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Napa Valley is widely considered one of the top wine regions in California and all of the United States. By the end of the nineteenth century there were more than one hundred and forty wineries in the area. Today Napa Valley features more than two hundred wineries and grows many different grape varieties including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Zinfandel. The region is visited by as many as five million people each year, making it the second to Disneyland as the most popular tourist destination in California.

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