Napa Valley Vineyards

Beringer Vineyards

Introduction

Established in 1876, Beringer Vineyards is one of the oldest living vineyards in the Napa Valley. For many first time visitors to Napa Valley, Beringer is an obvious choice for any visit. it's hard not to think of it due to its dominant presence in the Napa Valley for over 130 years. you can find it for sale, in almost every major grocery store in the nation, and though some wine snobs may look down on the aged giant, that doesn't stop people from all over the world making this one of their stops when visiting Napa.

But why? what makes people flock to this winery in such large numbers every year? After visiting over 60 wineries, we finally broke down and decided to go and find out what Beringer was all about. We took one of their many tours, the least expensive at 20 dollars a head, which included the tasting. Here is our experience and thoughts.

Grounds

The grounds of course are filled with manicured gardens, historic buildings and one very large, leaning oak tree which stood has been dubbed a bicentennial tree. It's presence at the vineyard influenced the line of "leaning oak" wine. The best feature is probably the Rhine House, a classic Victorian home that was built for the Beringer's in 1886. Currently you cannot go inside of the house, since it is undergoing seismic retrofitting to make it safe and secure for future visitors, but I would suggest coming back to walk through this historic property.

Tasting Room and Tour

The tasting room is actually split into to separate rooms, with one dedicated to only reserve wines. Both are quite intimate allowing for a more personal experience. If you take the Introducing Beringer tour, you have a progressive tasting rather than a stop at the end in one of these tasting rooms. Their are all and all about six different tour experiences offered at the Beringer Vineyard, some involve parings with food, special wine tastings in the cellar and all with prices between $20-35 dollars. The Introducing Beringer tour takes you to the petite model vineyard where you sample their chardonnay. Then off to the wine caves where you learn the history of the Beringer brothers and see different antique wine making equipment.

The tour was informative, but doesn't take you to many locations, but a look inside the wine caves is always a special thing to do at any vineyard. The final tasting was of their port paired with dark chocolate pieces, proving that you can never go wrong when you offer your guests dessert. With over 20 people on our tour it was a little crowded compared to other wineries that restrict tours to 12 or less.

Staff

The tour guide, was definitely one of the more knowledgeable tour guides that we have come across, and had a great deal of knowledge about Beringer and their wines. He was also very friendly and open to any and all questions about Beringer or Napa in general. if your going to take a tour its important to have a tour guide who knows what he's talking about, other wise it can make for a very lousy experience.

It seems that Beringer has put a lot of effort in finding knowledgeable and entertaining tour guides, which makes the tour better, but only take the tour if your dying to know, otherwise you could find it to be a dryer then their chardonnay.

Our Rating

Over all we would rate our experience as okay/good. My final findings were that Beringer is probably a good stop for first time visitors who are looking to ground themselves before braving some of the lesser known or even appointment only vineyards. I've had better experiences in Napa by far, but I've also had a worse. So my belief is that when new visitors come to Napa they want to visit somewhere that they recognize, this would be places like Beringer, BV, and Sutter Homes. I imagine if Charles Shaw was actually in Napa and had a winery, thousands of people a year would go there.

People like familiarity, and these wines are the ones that are most accessible to the general population. This has nothing to do with their quality either, Beringer had some great tasting wines, and others that were not of my preference, but in the end that's all that matters, personal preference. We like what we like, and we like what we know. I would suggest that people try different things when visiting Napa but if Beringer is on your list, enjoy.

Reviews

March 2008 Trip with High School Friends - April 2, 2008

I have to agree with the previous comments. This winery is nice for first time visitors. The tour is great and property is awesome. But you can buy most of their wine at your local store. The fun of going to Napa is finding something you normally cannot obtain close to home. That may mean paying $30-$50 for a nice bottle of wine. This was my third time here and probably my last unless we come with first timers. We always enjoy their wine but look for new experience each time you visit.

By gormanv

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