2007 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

2007 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

 

34% Bancroft Ranch, 33% Steinhauer Ranch, 8% Chabot Vineyard, 8% Lampyridae, and remainder from St. Helena Home Vineyard, Marston Ranch and Rancho del Oso. Napa Valley, California (USA)

Winemaker:  Mark Beringer

Retail:  $135 - $165 (2024)

 

Sunday Night Wine Up was a gift from a San Diego Wine Guild Founder Ted Law who "found" the wine deep in his cellar.  I keep looking in my cellar and I can't find a Beringer Private Reserve!  Showed no signs of aging in the rim or in the glass bowl.  A bit of cinnamon and spice on the nose (not intense).  We loved the dense purple color that led us directly into tasting blackberries, licorice, and tobacco.  Still well balanced and structure between acidity and tannins.  The finish was slow to evolve and glad we decanted it to savor the beauty of this Cabernet. 

 

According to Robert Parker who gave this wine 97 points in the Wine Advocate: "A mild spring and summer with only a handful of heat spikes was followed by beautiful weather in September and October. One of the finest Private Reserves made over the last two decades, this phenomenal wine is obviously still an infant in terms of development, but it exhibits a dense purple color as well as an extraordinary nose of blackberries, white chocolate, licorice, tobacco leaf, smoky barbecue, charcoal and a burning ember-like note reminiscent of a Graves from Bordeaux."

 

 

This wine has a long and rich history like the wine itself since the first vintage in 1977 by the icon winemaker Ed Sbragia. Today they only use the best lots from the outstanding vineyards to which each vineyard is aged separately in new French oak for two years before blending.

 

 

Beringer made a bit over 9,000 cases of the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve, which is amazing for the both the quality and quantity.  A tribute of great farming and careful nuturing by the winemaker Mark Beringer!

 

Alcohol:  14.6%