2021 Beringer Vineyards Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, USA
97 James Suckling • 94 Wine Enthusiast
2021 Beringer Vineyards Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, USA
James Suckling scored this Knights Valley Reserve 97 points, and Wine Enthusiast scored it 94 points!
Suckling found dark fruit, violet, and peppery green, then cigar box, forest floor, graphite, cedar, and dark chocolate in a full, focused, concentrated glass, and he said drink it or hold it.
Wine Enthusiast tasted "plum, currant, licorice, graphite and tobacco" in supple tannin, and said a little time in the cellar softens it.
What do James Suckling and Wine Enthusiast both find under the dark fruit?
"Graphite under the plum, and the glass stays long."
The bottle is only $45. Add it.
Type FEATURED20 at checkout through December 31. That is 20% off. The cart shows $45 until the code is entered.
Twelve bottles ship free in the lower 48. Hawaii and Alaska stay on the zone rate.
This film is a 4K tour of the Beringer property in St. Helena. It shows the grounds. It does not taste this vintage.
Ripe, then sage and rock
A Napa Wine Project note on this 2021 Reserve calls the color deep ruby, and the nose stays ripe without tipping over, with cherry pie, licorice, blackberry, and a little vanilla.
The palate follows that fruit into plum, dark cherry, and boysenberry, then sage, thyme, and dusty rock, with medium acid and a gravelly tannin that is already in the wine, and at 15.2% it does not feel hot.
The blend is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot, 4% Merlot, and 2% Malbec. The 2021 drought held the season until rain pushed the pick from September 28 through October 6, the skins stayed in the tank 21 to 28 days, and the wine then spent 26 months in French oak, 46% of it new.
Frederick's Rhine House
Frederick Beringer built the Rhine House at the front of the St. Helena estate, the cornerstone set in 1883 and the house finished in 1884, and the stone mansion still stands over the fountain and the garden.
The winery dates itself to 1876, and this is the 150th year, so the gate still carries that date in gold over the arches.
You come through that gate, and the reserve is poured in the same house Frederick finished.
Under Mount Saint Helena
Knights Valley sits about 17 miles north of that St. Helena house, in Sonoma County, in the shadow of Mount Saint Helena, where the days run warm and the nights drop.
The reserve blocks are the gravel pieces of that ground, from about 200 to 500 feet, and the sign in the rows is the estate vineyard itself.
That is the place in the glass: rocky soil, a long season, and cabernet that keeps its line.
Hand-dug rock
The caves were dug by hand into the hillside behind the house, and the first tunnel still shows the raw rock, with the barrels lined along the right wall.
Farther in, one room is set with candles, framed portraits propped on the barrels, and a tasting bar at the far end of the stone.
The large oak and the chandelier are the cellar beside the house, and the tasting room above those caves is the public face of the same estate, wooden shelves and a stair.
Ribeye, then venison
A thick ribeye, butter-basted with rosemary, takes the plum and the oak and gives the tannin a crust to lean on.
Venison with thyme takes the other road, and the sage and the dusty rock on the finish finally have a plate.
Butter-basted ribeye
A thick steak, basted in butter with rosemary.
Why it works: The browned butter meets the oak, and the plum in the glass sits with the crust.
View Recipe for Butter-basted ribeye (opens in a new tab)
Slow-roasted venison loin
Spice-rubbed venison loin, sliced, with thyme.
Why it works: Thyme on the loin meets the sage and the dusty rock on the finish.
View Recipe for Slow-roasted venison loin (opens in a new tab)Take the bottle.
Graphite under the plum. Knights Valley reserve cabernet.
The winery price is $70. The bottle is only $45. Add it.
