Beringer Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet 2016 | Historic 96pt Cabernet

Beringer Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet 2016 presents a dark, opaque purple core with ruby-crimson highlights at the rim which stain the glass. The nose opens to black currant, blackberry, Bing cherry, and mocha. There are bay leaf and graphite alongside Madagascar vanilla, black leather, and a kiss of mint. The wine has a massive and dark mid-palate that adds suppleness to the finely tuned, dusty tannins that are the hallmark of Knights Valley. Drink now – 2035.

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96JS | Beringer Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet 2016 delivers as very polished and extremely reserved. While medium-to full-bodied, cool and balanced. Lavender, dark fruit and a flavorful finish. Drink or hold.

94JD | So, the Beringer Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet 2016 offers more purity as well as structure. Notably, a vineyard selection mostly from the southern end of the estate property in Knights Valley, its deep purple color is followed by classic cassis and blueberry fruits intermixed with hints of damp earth, violets, and subtle minerality. It’s ripe and voluptuous on the palate but has building structure, beautiful mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It’s a beautiful wine that has two decades of longevity.

Beringer’s property in Knights Valley

Of course, if a bottle like this one said “Napa Valley” on the label, it’d be going for $200.  While Beringer’s property in Knights Valley sees the warmest temperatures in Sonoma by day, but their high altitudes drive dramatic temperature variations that lead to refreshingly cool nights and long growing seasons. Soil diversity, from rocky alluvial hillsides to volcanic ash, lend this 2016 its complexity through the lifted, herbal finish.

Mark Beringer, the Heir!

So, Beringer’s massive 2016 Knights Valley Reserve Cabernet is a historic bottling from the iconic Napa estate and marks the homecoming of an heir. Mark Beringer, the great-great-grandson of one of the co-founding brothers, took the helm of the estate as winemaker in 2015 and immediately wrote himself into the winery’s legacy with this dazzlingly supple Cabernet.

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Now, returning to the Knights Valley vineyards his family first cultivated generations ago.  Yet, Mark shows his complete mastery of the house style that has twice earned Beringer the #1 Wine of the Year honor from Wine Spectator.   Offering bay leaf, graphite, and vanilla overlay plump black currant and blackberry with a kiss of mint.  While eliciting a whopping 96 point score from James Suckling.  While Jeb Dunnuck praised its “ripe and voluptuous palate” and called it “a beautiful wine that has two decades of longevity.”