Beringer Bancroft Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Bancroft Ranch is dense, powerful and muscular on the palate, with tremendous depth and intensity in all its dimensions. Beams of salinity and minerality give the 2016 its shape and overall sense of energy. Many of the 2016s are quite open, but the Bancroft Ranch needs quite a bit of time. The only question is how much.

Another wine with some upside is the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Bancroft Ranch, which comes from Howell Mountain and was brought up all in new French oak. This inky colored effort offers plenty of earthy minerality as well as deep, smoky black and blue fruits, full body, bright acidity, and building structure. It has all the right components yet isn't for those seeking instant gratification. Hide bottles for 4-6 years and it should keep for another two decades or more.

This is a grippy, powerful and densely built wine, robustly oaky and substantial in dark, brooding black fruit. The blackberry and cherry have a succulence that gives the wine a juicy core and soft midpalate, as a build up of black pepper, graphite and smoke surround.

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Bancroft Ranch is made up of 100% Cabernet aged for 21 months in 100% new French oak. Deep garnet-purple colored, it opens with notes of baked cherries, cassis and prunes with hints of fruitcake and baking spices plus a waft of potpourri. Full-bodied and chewy with loads of freshness, it has a rustic finish. 494 cases produced.