Ancien Wines

Wonderful wines. Try to have a tasting. In the cave.

A beautiful fall afternoon sitting on the picnic table with 6 bottles of PInot Noir just waiting to be tasted.
A tasting at Ancien is a very personal experience. It was just the two of us as the gentleman pouring walked us through their philosophy of wine making. A tour of the barrel cave and a walk through the vineyards tasting a few grapes off the vine .
We enjoyed every drop and were soon members waiting for our first shipment.
Great wine and very nice people.
By appointment only, call ahead, your will not be disappointed

One of the best kept secrets of Napa Valley. Ken Bernards and Ann Kraemer craft some of California’s best Pinot Noirs. They are detail driven and passionate about the quality and art of winemaking. The Mink Vineyard Pinot Noir is my favorite hand down. It is well worth the effort to hunt down this wine. Small production, huge quality.

It’s pathetic it took me this long to write an Ancien review. I go to 25 — 50 wineries a year. Ancien is a true favorite in my house.
Ancien makes fantastic wine — as earlier posts mention, the pinot noir is a standout.
We’ve enjoyed many of the wine club events, but there was one particular experience at the winery a few years ago that will always remain as one of my favorite wine experiences ever. We made a special appointment for a winery tour one October (just after harvest and crush) while production was ongoing.
My wife, son (then 7) and I went out, where Curtis walked us out into the vineyard, asked my son what the first thing that happened to make wine. My son answered «pick grapes?», to which Curtis said «Right — so let’s pick some grapes». We picked a couple of handfulls of grapes, dropped them into a ziplock bag, and used that to show him the entire winemaking process.
My son was thrilled, and it might be the best science lecture my son will ever experience.
I’m ridiculously lucky to be so close to so many wineries near to my home. Napa county is a really special place (10 years ago I was tasting at a winery in France. The woman in thee tating room found out we were from NorCal, and immediately left the tasting room to find her husband, the winemaker, to introduce us. He spoke no English, but came back from an industry trip to the Napa Valley and told her that it was «singularly the most beautiful place he had ever been and one day he wanted to bring her there»). Among a plethora of treasures, Ancien is a real standout.

Ancien is a great find! Ken and Theresa Bernards specialize in chardonnay and pinot noir from Napa, Carneros, Russian River, and Santa Lucia. Ken is a chemist by training (just like me) and he’s been making wine under the Ancien label since 1992. The winery is located on the east side of Napa below the Silverado Trail. They only do tastings by appointment so call in advance. We had a delightful time hanging out in the shade and drinking some good pinot! The 2005 Mink vineyard isn’t quite as good as the 2004 but it’s still really good. The Toyon vineyard from Carneros tastes like candy. Nice chardonnay too!