Beringer turns 150 this year, and the 2023 Private Reserve Chardonnay is the vintage on our shelf for it. James Suckling gives it 96, Jeb Dunnuck and Owen Bargreen 95. The winery’s price for Private Reserve Chardonnay is $50.00. Until midnight tonight it is $39.99 here, or $34.99 a bottle by the six. Behind it, the last library Beringers on our shelf: the Private Reserve Cabernet vertical set, the 2017 and 2012 Private Reserve Cabernets, and the 2011 Quantum.

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A Personal Note

Dear Artisans,

Jacob and Frederick Beringer founded their winery in St. Helena in 1876. A hundred and fifty years later it is still making wine on the same ground, and the Private Reserve Chardonnay, first bottled with the 1978 vintage, is still the white that the rest of Napa measures itself against. The 2023 is the vintage in our cellar for the anniversary year, and for the next 24 hours it is $39.99 a bottle, $34.99 by the six, against the winery’s $50.00.

The Chardonnay That Was Wine Of The Year

In 1996 Wine Spectator put the 1994 Private Reserve Chardonnay at #1 in its Top 100, the first Chardonnay ever to hold the top spot. Two years later the 1996 was the No. 2 white wine in the Top 100 of 1998. With the 1986 Private Reserve Cabernet already a Wine of the Year, Beringer became the first and only winery to have both a red and a white wine named #1 Wine of the Year by Wine Spectator, and it still is.

Consistency is the rarer trick. Over the past ten vintages alone this wine has collected more than forty scores of 90 points or higher from the major critics. It does not have a weak year; it has years that are merely very good.

The 2023

The fruit is Gamble Ranch, Beringer’s northernmost Chardonnay vineyard near Yountville and the primary source for Private Reserve for decades, where the oldest vines were planted in 1976 to the Wente clone and the morning fog keeps the acidity honest. About 18% came from Big Ranch in Oak Knoll for its cooler, more mineral edge. 2023 was the slow year: a mild season and an unprecedented late harvest, with the Private Reserve fruit picked between October 8 and November 1.

In the cellar it went straight to press and into 100% French oak barrels, 50% new, with the lees stirred every other month. Suckling: “Quite a powerful wine that is carried by pure acidity and freshness.” Dunnuck: “pure, balanced, and layered, with wonderfully integrated oak.” That is the whole Private Reserve idea in two lines: richness with the brakes on.

The Last Library Beringers

While the Chardonnay is on sale, the rest of our Beringer shelf is closing out, and these are the last of them: eight six-bottle vertical sets of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Private Reserve Cabernet (two of each, James Suckling 99, 98 and 98) at $999.97 a set; five bottles of the 2017 Private Reserve Cabernet, No. 8 in Suckling’s Top 100 Wines of the USA for 2020, at $169.99; two bottles of the 2012, Robert Parker 96, at $189.98; and nine bottles of the 2011 Quantum, Galloni 93+, at $54.97. All below.

James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Why This Matters

The Wine · 24 Hours Only

2023 Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay.

James Suckling 96. Jeb Dunnuck 95. Owen Bargreen 95. Gamble Ranch, Oakville.

Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay 2023

Napa Valley · Gamble Ranch, Oakville

Gamble Ranch Chardonnay from vines planted in 1976, with about 18% Big Ranch fruit from Oak Knoll, barrel-fermented in 100% French oak, half of it new, eight months on the lees with stirring every other month. Every review is below, highest first.

The Library · Last Bottles

The Last Beringer Private Reserves.

Eight vertical sets, five 2017s, two 2012s and nine Quantums. Reorders are off; when these go, they are gone.

Beringer, The Library

Napa Valley · Private Reserve Cabernet And Quantum

The Private Reserve Cabernet is Beringer’s red flagship, built on a core of Howell Mountain vineyards, vinified parcel by parcel and aged about 20 months in mostly new French oak. Suckling has given it 99, 98 and 98 across 2016, 2017 and 2018, and Parker called the 2012 “a classic, quintessential Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.” Here is what is left, oldest set first.

The Bottom Line

A 96-point anniversary Chardonnay for $39.99, $34.99 by the six, until midnight.

The wine that was the first white ever named Wine of the Year, in Beringer’s 150th-anniversary year, at ten dollars under the winery and fifteen under by the six. This is the case to keep for every dinner between now and 2032.

If you collect the reds, the vertical set is the one: three of the strongest Private Reserves ever made, two of each, $166.66 a bottle in a box. Reply to this email or text 650-880-3553 and I will hold what you want until the truck goes out.

Cheers,

— James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

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