Beringer Vineyards - 2012 Knights Valley cabernet sauvignon [California]

Here's a wine we had a few weeks ago; one my father had been saving for quite some time - a 2012 cabernet sauvignon from St. Helena, CA-based Beringer Vineyards.

California cabernets have a stellar reputation, as the grape can produce very complex, spicy, and well-round wines able to be aged for decades. Sonoma County in particular makes some of the most desirable of all the California cabernets, that is, provided when it is not a wind-fueled inferno. True story - a lot of Sonoma and Napa wines will suffer for years as the result of smoke exposure from the recent fires. Yields and quality in many fields will be diminished through 2020, sadly.

Today's bottle was produced in Beringer's Knights Valley vineyard, located in the Knights Valley AVA which was awarded an American Viticulture Area designation in 1983. This area, about 16 miles up Route 128 from Beringer's headquarters in St. Helena, is the warmest of the valleys in the Sonoma region, which is important for growing grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux. This area has what's known as "cobbled alluvial soil" - essentially sandy, loose soils with some clay and rocks tossed in. Sounds terrible, but it's actually a good soil in which to grow wine.

I like the coloring around the edge; there's a deep garnet color with no bricking.

Up front there's some delicate fruit (Dan thinks blackcurrant) but mostly "dark" fruit and skins. The wine is quite delicate, naturally a function of the aging, but also probably the grape as well. On the finish there's a quite long savory quality, which I think is the most dominant flavor. The closest I can come to describing it is salt, but it's not super salty in the way that a Pico Maccario barbera is, or some Chiantis are. On the aftertaste, there's a bit of that dark fruit coming back, mixed with the salt and some slightly sweet alcohol esters.

Despite all the flavors in this wine, it's quite delicate.  It was a good pairing with turkey, since the meat wasn't heavily spiced, but the wine lacked any true standout flavor - which is both good and bad. On one hand, soft and complex wines like this one shouldn't overpower, but they also need to have a bit of strength to them. I thought the wine could have a bit more fruit character, which would make it richer and a little sweeter. Still - a nice bottle for a nice holiday dinner.