About This Wine:

Lots from a cross section of prime Napa Valley vineyards are vinified separately and aged in French oak barrels for just over twenty months to integrate the extracted fruit and tannins. A classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with aromas and flavors of black cherry, cedar, cassis, mint and cocoa that finish long and rich.

The Vineyards: For the 2005 blend, a third of the fruit comes from the St. Helena Home Vineyard right next to the winery in St. Helena. Approximately 25 percent of the blend comes from Beringer’s renowned Bancroft Ranch on Howell Mountain and another 13 percent comes from Marston Vineyard on Spring Mountain. Small amounts of Cabernet from Quarry Vineyard in Rutherford, Rancho Del Oso Vineyard on Howell Mountain and Chabot Vineyard in St. Helena round out the blend, adding layers of fruit flavors.

Winemaking: As has become tradition with Beringer Cabernets, Ed and Laurie kept each lot separate through fermentation and aging to retain the individual expressions of the vineyards, giving them a broader array of aromatic, flavor and structural components to consider at blending time. After fermentation all of the lots were aged in approximately 80% new French Never oak barrels for 24 months. The winemakers tasted the lots regularly to monitor their development and get an idea of which wines would fit together best in the final blend. The addition of Cabernet Franc (7%) from Steinhauer Ranch and just a touch of Malbec (1%) completed the wine, which opens on the nose with succulent ripe black berries and hints of allspice and cedar. Dark, fruit flavors fill the mouth and transition into a structured and long finish with sweet vanilla and complemented by hints of Thai coffee and sarsaparilla.

About The Winery:

Jacob Beringer left his home in Mainz, Germany, in 1868 to start a new life in the U.S., enticed by his brother, Frederick, who had sailed to New York five years earlier and wrote home constantly of the grand opportunities to be found in the vast new world. New York did not appeal to Jacob, however. He had enjoyed working in wine cellars in Germany when he was younger and had heard that the warm, sunny climate of California was ideal for growing wine grapes. So 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. Jacob and Frederick together bought land in 1875 and set about making wines that compared to the best in Europe . In 1876, they founded the Beringer Winery.

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. The tunnels took several years to complete but were the perfect place to age and store fine wine.

Even today, the average 58°F temperature inside the tunnels makes them the ideal place for Beringer Vineyards to age fine wines and the newly restored Old Stone Winery, a popular focus for visitors, marks the entrance to this cool, subterranean world.

While the winery was being built, Jacob took up residence in a farmhouse on the property built in 1848, now referred to as the “Hudson House.” Meticulously restored and expanded, the Hudson House serves today as Beringer Vineyards ’ Culinary Arts Center . In 1883, Frederick permanently moved to the Napa Valley and began construction of a 17-room mansion that was to be his home—a re-creation of the Beringer family home located on the Rhine River in Germany . This unique “Rhine House” is the center of Beringer’s reserve and library tastings. It is a place where guests can enjoy a glass of wine while relaxing in the old library or on the same porch that Frederick once sat, overlooking the expansive lawns, lush gardens, and out across the Napa Valley .

Beringer Vineyards is the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley . In 2001, the estate was placed on the National Register for Historic Places as a Historic District. Jacob Beringer’s foresight in recognizing the quality and potential of grape growing in the Napa Valley is part of the living heritage of Beringer Vineyards . With the present use of state-of-the-art technology applied to age-old traditions, Beringer Vineyards ’ wines continue to reflect a single-minded dedication to the making of memorable wines from great Napa Valley vineyards.

About The Winemaker:

Laurie Hook – Growing up in Sacramento , California , Laurie Hook never dreamed of becoming a winemaker. “I didn’t even know the job existed,” she explains. “But then I found out that my family had owned a French Chateau (Chateau Olivier) before the revolution and it piqued my interest. Also, I loved history, science and agriculture, and the idea of doing something that connected you to the earth. And when I started tasting and reading about wine in college, I realized that winemaking brings all three disciplines together.”

Laurie transferred to the winemaking program at the University of California at Davis , training ground for noted winemakers in California and around the world. After graduation in 1984, she traveled to Australia to work in a small Melbourne-area winery for six months. “I did everything from pruning the vines, driving a tractor and harvesting the grapes to making and bottling the wine and even selling it. I got a real hands-on education as well as great travel. And I had the irreplaceable experience of looking up while pruning one day and seeing a kangaroo in the vineyard.” A harvest at a Sonoma County winery followed.

In 1986, Laurie came to Beringer as an enologist, a job that allowed her to solidify the scientific side of her training. In 1997, she was named Assistant Winemaker to Winemaster Ed Sbragia, and in 2000 was promoted to Winemaker for Beringer Vineyards.

“You can’t make wine only through science,” says Laurie. “ California winemakers learned that in the 1970s and early 1980s, when a highly scientific approach resulted in very clean wines but not necessarily very interesting ones. Of course you need to understand the process by which wines are made, but now we’ve learned to trust our intuition as well. And I’ve learned from Ed that making great wines—wines that are unique—means taking risks.”

While Ed developed the styles for most of Beringer’s wines over his 25-plus years at the winery, they continue to evolve as a result of the teamwork between the two winemakers. “When you’ve worked next to someone for almost 20 years, there’s a trust that builds and our wines benefit from that,” explains Laurie.

Laurie is a member of the American Society of Viticulture and Enology, the Trellis Alliance, and the Napa Valley Wine Technical Group. Outside of the winery, Laurie has a myriad of interests and hobbies revolving around travel, gardening, the study of history, collecting antique and regional cookbooks and funny quotes about wine. She’s also a passionate animal lover.

Technical Analysis:

Vintage: 2005

Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation: Napa Valley

Alcohol: 14.3%