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Beringer's
1997 Howell Mountain Merlot Bancroft Ranch
This pick for wine of the month is Beringer's
1997 Howell Mountain Merlot Bancroft Ranch. In the early 1870's, Jacob Beringer arrived in the Napa Valley, near St Helena. He felt that this would be an ideal location to grow grapes. With
his brother, Frederick, as a partner, in 1876 they began construction of a gravity-fed winery and commissioned a state-of-the-art, custom built, steam powered stemmer-crusher. The winery was
backed by a limestone and volcanic tuff hill where they were able to dig 1000 linear feet of tunnels for a naturally temperature-controlled aging cellar, which maintains and even temperature of 58
degrees Fahrenheit. From the beginning, the Beringer brothers put quality first by paying attention to the details of the winemaking process from the vineyard through to the bottle.
Covering an alluvial fan on the lower part of Spring Mountain, the vineyard's restrictive, well-drained soils are comprised primarily of clay, rock and loam.
They produce wine from 17
varietal grapes. Besides the single grape wines, they also produce Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay Beaujolais, Nouveau, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc, and a Port of
Cabernet Sauvignon.
On October 2, 2000 Beringer was purchased by the Foster Brewing Group out of Australia.
In addition to Beringer, Foster’s owns five other California wineries: Chateau St. Jean, Chateau Souverain, Meridian Vineyards, Stags' Leap Winery and St. Clement Vineyards. Other Beringer Blass
Wine Estates' brands marketed in the U.S. include Australia's Wolf Blass, Black Opal, Greg Norman Estates and Rothbury Estate and Italy's Castello di Gabbiano and Campanile. The company also
imports Vina Tarapaca and Dallas Conte from Chile and Travaglini from Italy.
The wine was aired for 10 minutes. Superb aromas of cherry, chocolate and anise aromas leading into a very full bodied and
mouthwatering palate with huge tannins intermingling nicely with Black cherry, chocolate, and currant. A very long and flavorful finish. And two days later the wine still had a lot to offer. This
wine is handled by Capitol Wine & Spirits in Pa., or in any of the 45 Specialty Wine & Spirits Shoppe in Pa.
Bill Bryce
Secretary, ASA/CPC
07/14/02
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