Time again for another single-bottle wine review article. This time I’m dedicating the page to Beringer Vineyards, and one of their single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons. We were club members a while back, my collection grew too much so I halted the club for a bit. Now I get text messages once or twice a year offering some great deals. This was one of them.
2014 Beringer Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Vogt Vinyard, Howell Mountain, Napa, 14.5 ABV
I opened the wine one hour before I planned to serve with dinner to decide if I wanted to decant. I tasted the wine and deemed no decanting was necessary. It was that good. I did my tasting notes just before dinner and again during the meal.
Color: Inky purple with a garnet edge and very opaque.
Aroma: Notes of blackberry jam, crushed blueberry, sweet Italian plums, and rich earth all hit at once and shouted “fresh” right at me.
Flavor: I was reminded of really fresh dark fruit and rich chocolate. Then I felt that the balance between the fruit and the tannins was smooth. I couldn’t believe the wine was only twelve years old and it was really enjoying its perfect sweet spot in my opinion. There was a backbone of spice and pepper to give it a nice medium finish.
Pairing: Eddie had prepared a large New York steak for us to share and had used a Texas barbeque dry rub before putting it in the sous vide machine for a few hours. The dryness of the rub, paired with the wine in its sweet spot for drinking, hit me just perfectly.
Roebuck and Bushman One Bottle Post: 2012 Beringer Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Chabot Vineyard, St. Helena, Napa Valley
Here is another Beringer Vineyard single vineyard review I did with fellow wine lover Steve Roebuck:
Beringer makes several stellar wines from single vineyards that currently include a 95-point 2019 Lampyridae Vineyard on sale at the moment that I may have to make room for, 96-point 2018 Steinhauer Ranch, 96-points for both the 2017 and 2018 Bancroft Ranch, 95-point 2017 Saint Helena Home…and more!
Explore more here:
https://www.beringer.com/collections/single-vineyard-wines
Eve Bushman has a Level Two Intermediate Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), a “certification in the first globally-recognized course” as an American Wine Specialist ® from the North American Sommelier Association (NASA), Level 1 Sake Award from WSET, was the subject of a 60-minute Wine Immersion video (over 16k views), authored “Wine Etiquette for Everyone” and has served as a judge for the Proof Awards since 2022 (submit via https://proofawards.com) Cellarmasters, LA Wine Competition, Long Beach Grand Cru and the Global Wine Awards. You can email Eve@EveWine101.com to ask a question about wine or spirits. Follow on Instagram and Facebook.
