THE HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE BERINGER

Two brothers from the banks of the Rhine founded a winery in Napa in 1876 — and it has been making wine, without missing a single vintage, ever since. Through earthquakes, world wars and even Prohibition, Beringer has endured, making it the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley and a monument to the immigrants who built American wine¹.

Two brothers from the Rhine

Jacob Beringer left Mainz, on Germany’s Rhine, and reached Napa in 1869, taking work at the pioneering Charles Krug winery. Recognising that the valley’s gravelly soils resembled the great vineyards of Europe, he and his brother Frederick bought land in St. Helena, and in 1876 founded Beringer Brothers². Into the hillside they cut deep tunnels for ageing wine — caves hand-dug by Chinese labourers over many years, among the few pre-1900 wine caves in Napa³. In 1884 Frederick crowned the estate with the Rhine House, a Victorian mansion modelled on the family’s German home, glowing with stained glass.

Surviving Prohibition

When Prohibition shut down American wine in 1920, most Napa wineries went dark. Beringer did not. It held a federal licence to make sacramental wine for churches, and it sold “wine bricks” — blocks of concentrated grape juice sold with a cheeky “warning” explaining exactly how not to let them ferment into wine at home⁴. By such means Beringer kept its cellars working straight through the dry years.

Never a missed vintage since 1876 — not even in Prohibition.— Beringer Vineyards⁴

150 years and counting

When repeal came in 1933, Beringer was among the first wineries to welcome the public with tours, and it grew into one of California’s best-known names. In 2026 it marked its 150th anniversary, its Rhine House still standing as a Napa landmark and its vineyards still in production⁵.

An immigrant landmark

Look closely and Beringer tells the whole immigrant story of American wine in one estate: German brothers who brought Old World know-how, Chinese labourers who carved the caves by hand, and a business resourceful enough to outlast the law itself. A century and a half on, it stands as living proof of how newcomers built the wine country of California.

Frequently asked questions

Read more

• How immigrants built American wine
• André Tchelistcheff, the Napa maestro
• How wineries survived Prohibition

References

1. VinePair — 7 Things You Should Know About Beringer Vineyards. ↑
2. Islands — Napa’s Oldest Continuously Operating Winery. ↑
3. ProWein — Beringer: Californian Vineyard with German Roots. ↑
4. TWE Global — Beringer Vineyards Marks 150 Years as a Napa Valley Landmark. ↑
5. The Napa Wine Project — Beringer Vineyards. ↑

Recommended reading

Vintage: The Story of Wine

Hugh Johnson

Fine on the immigrant founders who planted Napa in the nineteenth century.

A Short History of Wine

Rod Phillips

Traces American wine through its founding, Prohibition and revival.

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