Many of the reasons to visit Beringer winery in St. Helena (www.beringer.com) for a wine tasting remain the same as they have been for decades. The grounds are sculpted; many of the buildings retain a nineteenth century charm; and the wines, to our taste, are among the best that Napa Valley has to offer. And let’s not forget a visit to their gift shop that has top quality chinaware and wine related articles.
As with almost all Napa Valley wineries, there is no longer a bar where visitors can be served, standing and generally milling around. There are only seated tastings, in good weather served on the veranda of the Rhine House, built by the original Beringer brothers. Just as at many other Napa Valley wineries, we feel that the way the wines are served detracts from the overall wine tasting experience.
[We need to clarify that we are referring only to the tastings of Beringer’s top quality wines. There is, as there has long been, a simple self-guided tour of the property that comes with three tastes of some of their more commercial wines. These may be best known, but are not comparable to the Private Reserve and single-vineyard wines one is served at the more expensive tastings.]
Visitors to the Rhine House are seated outdoors, which is a bit of a shame, because the interior of the building is so attractive, with burnished wood and fittings all about. Yes, we could wander in there after our tasting, but it’s not quite the same as doing so with a glass in hand.
The servers at Beringer are quite knowledgeable but in some case they can be rather chatty. We appreciate being given background on the wines we are being served, the geology of the vineyard, the method of production, and so on. A brief conversation about where we are from and why we chose to taste at that winery is fine. But we want to be served and left alone to enjoy the wine, the views and the afternoon sunshine through the trees. We don’t want to know where the server is from, how she came to work there and what she does in her spare time. We are there to taste wine, not to make a new, temporary friend. Alas, we found our server at Beringer – as at many other fine wineries – to be too talkative. It is more of a distraction than anything else and it definitely distracts from the wine tasting experience.
Of course, the wines are the attraction and they didn’t let us down. Our most recent tasting included a Private Reserve Chardonnay, a single vineyard Merlot, two single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons and the famous Private Reserve Cabernet. When we expressed a liking for the Merlot, our server brought another one from their library collection, unbidden. That sort of thing also used to happen when we stood at the bar inside, but these circumstances made the little extra feel more personal.
All in all, a visit to Beringer is still one of the premier experiences available in Napa Valley. It’s just not the same as it was.