Beringer Vineyards
Napa’s oldest continuously operating winery has poured through every vintage since 1876 — Prohibition included — from an estate built around a stained-glass Victorian mansion.
Brothers Jacob and Frederick Beringer founded their winery at St. Helena in 1876, and it has not missed a vintage since — the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley, a California Historical Landmark on the National Register. The estate’s centerpiece is Frederick’s Rhine House of 1884, a gabled, stained-glass Victorian mansion built to remember the brothers’ German homeland; the hand-dug stone tunnels behind it kept barrels cool a century before refrigeration.
Beringer also wrote the playbook every tasting room in this guide runs on: in 1934, the moment Prohibition ended, it became the first California winery to open its doors for public tours and tastings. Every pour on every Temecula patio is downstream of that idea. Taste under the old elms, then mind the elder’s lesson: history survives by staying open.
What to expect
| Go for | Napa’s elder statesman — every vintage since 1876, poured on a landmark estate |
|---|---|
| The house | Founded by Jacob and Frederick Beringer; the 1884 stained-glass Rhine House is the valley’s great Victorian |
| The first | First California winery to open public tours and tastings after Prohibition, 1934 — the template for every tasting room since |
| From the valley | The pilgrimage north — St. Helena sits mid-valley in Napa; pair with Montelena up the road |
Featured videos
A century and a half without missing a vintage — the Rhine House, the tunnels, and Napa’s elder on film.
More of this direction
The other north doors on the shortlist — every one worth the drive back to Temecula.