Touring and Tasting Wine at Beringer Vineyards




Napa Valley is a fun place to spend a day or a weekend. Last month we spent a few days up there with family. We stayed right next to some vineyards ... not hard to do in St. Helena ... and had several marvelous sit-down wine tastings. The whole adventure started at Beringer Vineyards with a full tour of the historic property, including the gardens, the caves and both a barrel tasting in the cave and educational tasting in the kitchen.

Founded in 1875, Beringer Vineyards is considered to be the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley and is listed under the National Register of Historical Places. The Beringer Brothers Winery (as it as known for a century) had its first harvest and crush in 1876. With Jacob Beringer serving as Winemaker and Frederick Beringer as financier, the brothers made approximately 40,000 gallons of wine (18,000 cases) that first year. Today, Beringer Vineyards is a huge wine company, but still manages to keep the family winery feel to its estate. In fact, Mark Beringer, became Chief Winemaker in 2015 … he is a direct descendant of founding brother Jacob Beringer.

We took some awesome photos and I thought I would share them with you.

Vineyards in St. Helena
Cabernet Sauvignon Grapevines
Beringer's Rhine House Built in 1884
Beringer Private Reserve Wines
Barrels used for aging
Some wonderful large old barrels
Wine glasses after our barrel tasting in the cave
While the caves are dimly light by "electric lights", there are still some old candles burning along the walls
Vaulted walkway between the caves
Ornate old barrels
This is how the caves looked years ago. Today the working winery is across the road.
More aging barrels
The Kitchen Tasting Room
The setting for our educational tasting
Garden walkway ... the grounds are beautiful

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