Bernardus Winery spotlight
Sip Sip Hooray visits Bernardus in Carmel Valley for an exact-winery feature with the estate team.
2019 Bernardus Marinus Signature Red
A cellar-selection Bordeaux-style blend drawn from the best Marinus Vineyard lots and barrels.
Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc lead a structured Carmel Valley red filled with black cherry, boysenberry, currant, cedar, and spice. WineSlash brings this limited 2019 Signature bottling to $45.
Save $80 vs. winery
The best Marinus lots, assembled as the estate’s Signature blend
Bernardus reserves this bottling for an exhaustive selection from the vineyard’s strongest lots and barrels. The blend is distinctive, the production is limited, and the current price is unusually sharp.
A true selection wine
Bernardus says the Signature bottling is assembled only after exhaustive tasting identifies the best lots and barrels from the vintage.
An uncommon lead
Petit Verdot makes up 40% and Cabernet Franc 27%, giving the blend a different architecture from Cabernet-dominant California reds.
Mountain-and-marine tension
The vineyard sits high in upper Carmel Valley, where inland sun is moderated by Pacific influence thirteen miles to the west.
A dramatic price gap
The live $45 price is $25 below the supplied average market anchor and $80 below the winery’s current direct listing.
Wine Enthusiast marks the 2019 for the cellar
The exact vintage earned 91 points and a Cellar Selection designation, with a published drinking window that runs through 2034.
How unusual is $45 for the 2019 Signature Marinus?
The live WineSlash price sits 36% below the supplied $70 average market price and 64% below the winery’s current $125 listing.
At $45 per bottle, six bottles total $270. The supplied average-market equivalent is $420, while six bottles at the winery’s current price would total $750.
See the official winery shop (opens in a new tab) and the exact-vintage Wine-Searcher listing (opens in a new tab). Market averages are ex-tax and vary by merchant and availability.
That is $25 below the supplied average market anchor and $80 below the winery price on every bottle.
Six bottles total $270. Twelve bottles total $540 and ship free.
Add 6 Bottles • $270Dark fruit, cedar, and a long, structured finish
The official cellar note moves from black cherry and boysenberry into currant, blueberry, blackberry, and spice, with enough structure to reward air or time.
The winery also produced 100 six-bottle cases of magnums, underscoring the selective scale of this exact vintage.
Black cherry, boysenberry, cedar, and a light licorice note.
Black currant, blueberry, and blackberry deepen the dark-fruit core, followed by fennel and spice.
Dry, concentrated, and highly structured, with a very long finish built for a substantial meal or measured cellaring.
Decant before dinner to give the structured finish room to soften around the berry and cedar core.
An informed projection within the published window: oak spice and fruit should knit more closely as the tannins relax.
An informed projection within the published window: fennel, cedar, and earth may gain ground as primary fruit becomes more restrained.
Four varieties, raised separately before the final selection
Each variety matured on its own in French oak for at least eighteen months. Only then did the blending trials identify the finished Signature Marinus.
Separate élevage: Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec were aged by variety, protecting the character of each component before final blending.
French oak: The entire cellar program used French barrels for a minimum of eighteen months, building cedar and spice around the wine’s dense dark-fruit core.
Selection after tasting: Bernardus describes exhaustive trials across its finest lots and barrels, with the finished blend chosen as the vintage’s strongest expression of Marinus Vineyard.
A Bordeaux dream rooted high in Carmel Valley
Founder Ben Pon saw in Carmel Valley the sun, cool nights, and beauty needed for world-class red wine. Marinus became the flagship expression of that conviction.
Bernardus Winery began in 1989 after Dutch founder Ben Pon chose Carmel Valley for its west-facing landscape, warm inland days, chilly nights, and marine influence. Marinus carries his middle name and his ambition for a serious Bordeaux-style red.
The Marinus Vineyard was planted in 1990 on rolling hills in upper Carmel Valley, about thirteen miles from the Pacific. Close spacing, vertical trellising, low yields, and multiple harvest passes focus each block on balanced, expressive fruit.
Bernardus opened Carmel Valley Village’s first tasting room in 1996, converting a former bank into a place for wine education and hospitality. The nearby Ingrid’s Vineyard, visible near Bernardus Lodge, extends that connection between wine and place.
Meet the structure with a slow braise or earthy mushrooms
Short ribs answer the wine’s tannin and dark fruit with richness; mushroom ragout draws out cedar, fennel, and savory depth without relying on meat.
Both dishes carry enough browned, savory flavor to meet the wine’s scale while leaving its berry and spice notes clear.
Serve near 60 to 65°F and decant for about one hour. That measured air time helps the structured finish relax without flattening the fruit.
Slow-Braised Beef Short Ribs
Tatyana’s red-wine braise layers beef, mushrooms, tomato, rosemary, and thyme into a deeply savory sauce.
Why it works: Beef fat softens the tannin, while the reduced sauce mirrors black fruit, cedar, and the wine’s long finish.
View Recipe for Slow-Braised Beef Short Ribs (opens in a new tab)
Mushroom Ragout with Soft Polenta
Chef Hugh Acheson’s mixed mushrooms bring rosemary, thyme, sherry vinegar, and Parmigiano to a creamy polenta base.
Why it works: Mushroom umami echoes cedar and earth, while polenta and cheese cushion the dry structure and vinegar keeps the pairing lively.
View Recipe for Mushroom Ragout with Soft Polenta (opens in a new tab)The Signature Marinus opportunity is the price and the pedigree together
This is the selective expression of a historic Carmel Valley vineyard, built from an unusual blend and priced far below both the supplied market average and the current winery listing.
Decant for about sixty minutes and let short ribs or mushroom ragout meet the wine’s structure.
Wine Enthusiast’s window extends through 2034, leaving time for cedar, spice, and tannin to integrate.
Six bottles total $270; twelve total $540 and qualify for the store’s free-shipping path.
Bring home the Marinus bottling that turns Bernardus’s best 2019 lots into a dark, structured Carmel Valley signature.
