1997 Merlot Bancroft Ranch

Someone apparently forgot to tell winemaker Ed Sbragia that 1998 was a mediocre year for North Coast cabernet and merlot. While these wines don't have the density and depth of flavor of the best vintages, they're hardly short on fruit. I tasted this year with Beringer Vice President Tor Kenward. (Beringer releases its vineyard-designated red wines late, so please refer to Issue 90 for notes on the finished '96s, which are in the market now or imminent.)

At my annual marathon tasting at Beringer with winemaker Ed Sbragia and Vice President Tor Kenward, most of the winery's '97s cabernets were still in barrel. Mountain-style wines like Tre Colline and Bancroft Ranch, says Sbragia, really need more time in barrel to smooth out their edges. (The winery is just now releasing its vineyard-designated 1995 cabernets and 1996 Private Reserve.) Still, the Private Reserve, a blend of the best blocks from each vintage, remains their top bottling in most years. Beringer does not hesitate to give its vines a big drink of water in the heat of summer to help along the maturing process. The alternative, says Kenward, is to get jammy, pruney notes of dehydration as well as greener tannins. "We focus on the fruit, not the leaves—otherwise the vines are likely to shut down in the August heat."

Ed Sbragia views the '96s as solidly structured wines; the whites, he says, were especially tight and minerally at the start. In comparison, the wines from 1997 appear to be more forward, he adds, and it remains to be seen whether they will be as big as the '96s. A recent development here has been the growing number of small-lot, vineyard-designated cabernets designed to showcase the different soils and microclimates of Beringer various sites. Yet the winery's Private Reserve cabernet, a blend of components from several vineyards (typically based on Chabot and Bancroft, but often including fruit from State Lane and the Home Vineyard near the winery), remains Beringer's most consistently outstanding and complete red wine.