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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 97.1 pts. and median of 98 pts. in 38 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by d.f.c on 12/15/2023 & rated 97 points: Creamy, buttery and leathery to the taste. Hint of chocolate, vanilla and berry jam. A full bodied and well balanced Cab, definitely Napa style. (641 views) | | | Tasted by markcic on 11/11/2023 & rated 97 points: Our good friends Leslie and Michael came for dinner. He was the gentlemen that so many years ago got me into wine. Not sure if I should thank him for that. Anyway I decided to open two nice bottles to go with our dinner of individual beef wellingtons. This and the 2012 Hillside Select. The wine with a nose of dark berries and chocolate, a palate of berries cassis, chocolate and hints of dried leaves. The finish is extremely long. It stole the show last night. I give out very few 97's but this bottle deserved it. It overshadowed the Hillside which was an excellent wine. To all the veterans out there in Trackerville. My family and I thank you for your service. (732 views) | | | Tasted by Bryanb2002 on 10/10/2023 & rated 94 points: Loads of dark fruit with it tilting more to the blue side of the spectrum. This started out really heavy, but after decanting it did lighten up. Like I said blue fruit notes with baking spices really made up the core of this and with decanting it did open up better than it started out although I would not call it structured. My only issue is I believe the current ask on these bottles have outrun the wine a little. This was good, but not great and I really don’t see the point in hanging on to this any longer as I don’t think it has the structure to age. (708 views) | | | Tasted by Schiffy on 6/19/2023 & rated 99 points: Full throttle fruit forward Cabernet with notes of blackberry, chocolate, mocha, cassis and graphite with a finish that will not stop. Silky smooth on the palate with unbelievable complexity…this wine is near perfect. This is an amazing expression of Napa Valley cult cabernet. (1032 views) | | | Tasted by MAXIMUM SATISFACTION on 5/30/2023 & rated 94 points: Drank from a magnum over two nights. Ready to go from the start. Chocolate covered cherry, mineral/iron and oak. Very luxurious and soft. Not a long haul wine. (1104 views) | | | Tasted by Cristal2000 on 5/10/2023 & rated 97 points: For context, I have been getting a little disturbed by the new oak showing on many of the Realm wines, especially after some age. It recently happened to me on a 2014 BTK, so I wanted to check in on the Crane and see if the issue is pervasive. Thankfully, that is not the case and this is stunning.
Coravin pour, no decant and the wine is crushing it right out of the gate. The aromas have developed away from the young crushed violet and blueberry pie notes of this vineyard to more complex aromas of truffles, mushroom, cedar, forest floor and dank earth. Still showing exceptional concentration, the palate has come together very nicely with well integrated (yet still strong) tannins, lovely purity and well rounded savory notes that I wasn't really sure Dr Crane could deliver. The locomotive starts moving mid palate and soars into a fantastically long finish. Evolving better than I would have ever expected. (2033 views) | | | Tasted by eschuldt on 3/21/2023 & rated 94 points: Showing some secondary notes. (975 views) | | | Tasted by greg@newsomehh.com on 8/25/2022 & rated 98 points: LOVED THIS WINE, DECANTED FOR 4.5 HOURS (1467 views) | | | Tasted by greg@newsomehh.com on 12/23/2021 & rated 97 points: Dr Crane is my fav, decanted for 2 hours, decanting is a must (1650 views) | | | Tasted by sonodoc on 2/15/2021 & rated 99 points: Fabulous! Rich dark color, with cherry flavors predominating along with chocolate, very smooth, and seemed incredibly light on the palate, with a long finish. (2544 views) | | | Tasted by MAXIMUM SATISFACTION on 1/18/2021 & rated 94 points: Opened for a few hours then double decanted and put back into the bottle. Never my favorite year for Realm Crane as it always seems to lack structure and intensity. Chocolate covered cherry, mineral/iron and oak dominate but are mainly up front with the palate falling short on the finish. Texturally dense and grainy with a lot of sediment. Still this is good stuff but for the retail price I would pass. (2475 views) | | | Tasted by jason85253@gmail.com on 12/27/2020 & rated 93 points: I never write reviews but I thought I’d be helpful as many have been to me. I had this wine at the vineyard a few years back and thought it was the best Realm I had ever tasted and rated it 100 points. It was perfectly balanced with tremendous fruit and minerality that is unique to the Dr. Crane Vineyard Unfortunately, this time around, it’s just not ready to drink. All the components are there...it just needs 3-5 years to shed the predominant wood taste and sharp,tart tannins to let the fruit re-emerge. (2134 views) | | | Tasted by eschuldt on 6/11/2020 & rated 95 points: Great but less structure than the 2014 myriad Elysian drunk alongside. Given the alcohol issues on the myriad realm is my preference for the long term. Helps that I only have realm left on the cellar... (2693 views) | | | Tasted by forgivenfool on 5/9/2020 & rated 98 points: Had at home with filet and risotto, wife's birthday. Decanted for 2 hours prior to meal. First bottle of Realm we've had other than the Bard and Tempest and I have been anxious to try this vineyard since visiting Realm in May '19 where they did not offer a drop of this to us, but the Moonracer there was the wine of the week. This did not disappoint in any respect. It was consumed over another 2 hours and the last glass was the best. I rarely drink wine in this rarified air, and maybe because it's fresh on my mind and palate...but I don't think I've ever enjoyed a glass more. Perfect balance, perfect taste, perfect finish. It makes me look forward to the other wines in their line up, I have at least one of every bottling they offer, but most are recent vintages that will have to cellar for years to come. Will I enjoy the Absurd more than this for nearly twice the cost? Who knows, but now I know what the fuss is about. (2036 views) | | | Tasted by Geoff on 2/23/2020 & rated 99 points: Tremendous classy yet powerful wine with nose of fresh dark fruit, floral notes. Full bodied yet not overly so, fine sweet, firm tannins, tastey and portending a long life ahead. Smooth on the palate. Opens in the glass to reveal multiple layers of pure, sweet cabernet flavors. No secondary notes yet and none needed with the impressive flavors and mouthfeel. Just keeps you coming back to savor both the expanding nose and the palate. Long, long finish. The bottle ends far too soon. (1990 views) | | | Tasted by MAXIMUM SATISFACTION on 9/16/2019 & rated 96 points: Opened in the bottle for 3-5 hours. The voluptuousness really only began to show at the last glass. Powerful and ultra ripe stuff but choppy/grainy all around. Not harsh or alcoholic but the tannins need time to smooth. (2545 views) | | | Tasted by Cailles on 6/1/2019 & rated 96 points: I had so high hopes for this wine as the last bottle back in December wasone of the best young wines I've ever had. Rated 98 points, it combined the power and seductiveness of a Napa wine with and elegant and weightless structure of the very top Bordeauxs (think Margaux). This bottle showed very good but without that same level of finesse. Still a fan here, though.
TN: Red cherries, cassis, some licorice, nice graphite minerality, some herbal scents and with time some cocoa notes on the nose and palate. The aromas are jumping out of the glass. It's all quite intense and the wine is rather full-bodied but without loosing its balance. As mentioned above, not the same level of weightlessness as a bottle back in December which is a tad disappointing. Probably more air would have done the job? Great, ripe and completely silky tannins, good freshness, great length.
Decanting: Stayed for 2+ hours in the decanter. Last time this was enough. But I would rather try 4 hours. But don't get me wrong, the wine drinks very well from the get-go but just better with enough air. (2895 views) | | | Tasted by Cailles on 12/10/2018 & rated 98 points: One of the best young wines I had to date. Why? It marries an off the charts concentration, the Napa sweetness and sexiness with an absolut world class structure, the best I‘ve found in a young Napa so far. It is absolutely weightless and not because a high or in any way noticeable acidity, the wine just is weightless, it just is... I dances like a ballet dancer across your palate. A gentle giant. Too good to not pop a bottle today and strangly I can‘t imagine that this wine will still be as good in 10 years.
TN: Red currant, red cherries, some darker cassis, fresh fruit liquor, milk chocolate, fresh herbs and some pencil shavings, some cola scents on the nose and palate. After 90 minutes it revealed all it got (at first it was a bit muted). Very good concentration but in no way too heavy or ripe. Very good focus too. The smoothest tannins and a perfectly integrated acidity which all together make this wine an elf-like creature. Long finish. If the structure remains that perfect and the complexity increases with age this could very well be a perfect wine. But can it?
Decanting: It needed time. Clearly improved during three hours. Two hours minimum decant is advised. (4142 views) | | | Tasted by Tonythefish on 11/22/2018 & rated 99 points: Crazy good! Great wine. Tons of ample red and blackberry. Lasting 45-60 second finish. Supple tannins already and after decanting it got better and better. Glad I have another!!! (2351 views) | | | Tasted by SAS54 on 10/25/2018 & rated 98 points: Big, bold, yet smooth, juicy and bright. Toasted oak, raspberry, with a sweet-tart at the end. Sweet-tart holds it back from 99 points.
Decanted an hour before drinking and took 3 hours to finish it. Opens wonderfully. (2307 views) | | | Tasted by slywka7 on 8/25/2018 & rated 100 points: Dinner with Friends (Home of the Slywka's): Tasted blind. We were told this was one of the Pinot's but my friend and I quickly pointed out this was not a Pinot. This had a fantastic nose of cherry, currant, boysenberry, bit of earth and something very distinctive I could not put my finger on. Flavors of black cherry, earth, blackberry and currant. The finish on this lasted 55-60 seconds and seemed to go one forever. This is really an unbelievable wine that had some distinctiveness to it which made it special. (2614 views) | | | Tasted by #1Winelover on 5/14/2018 & rated 97 points: Dinner and wine tasting with Realm's Dr. Crane, Shafer Hillside Select '14, and Pott The Arsenal '13.
I called the winery to make sure this was ready to go and I was advised to decant for 2 hours. So I decanted for 2 hours, poured back into bottle and it was ready! Dark purple black with a touch of red around the rim. Primarily black and blue fruit, including blackberry, blueberry and plum. Nice depth and elegance mid-palate and on the finish. Refined earthy notes of graphite and scorched earth. Well integrated tannins.
Realm's Dr Crane is an "experience wine," from the label to the juice inside, to figuring out how to get some at a reasonable price. It was a pleasure sharing it with good friends who appreciate wine. (3944 views) | | | Tasted by Cristal2000 on 2/8/2018 & rated 95 points: Whirlwind Winter Tasting in the Valley; 2/7/2018-2/10/2018 (Napa Valley, CA): Had this wine next to a 2016 Vice Versa Dr Crane BBS, 2015 Myriad Dr Crane, 2015 Myriad Dr Crane Elysian, 2015 Vice Versa Dr Crane and 2012 Debate Dr Crane. For me, this was 4th on the night.
On a table with all Dr Crane wines, the Realm was the most distinct. It was the darkest in the glass, showed the most scorched earth notes on the nose and had the densest, richest and most weighted pallet. The chocolate here is very obvious. There is a creamy, silky and texturally wonderful way in which these wines are put together, and that shined through. I think this wine suffered against some of the others mostly because of the vintage. It wasn't showing as much of the concentrated and polished fruit as the 2015's, and it fell a bit short in the finish relative to some of the others. It also had a bit of a burnt rubber note on the nose that was slightly off putting.
All that said, this is one of my favorite wines and 2014 is no different. It may be going through a bit of a phase, or it may just suffer next to exceptional wines from a better vintage. I did have the 2015 Realm Crane later on and it would have competed for the top spot here. (3843 views) | | | Tasted by csimm on 2/8/2018 & rated 96 points: 3-Day Napa Cab Taste-Off: Vice Versa, B Cellars, Memento Mori, Alpha Omega, Purlieu, Janzen, Realm, Myriad, MACDONALD, Maybach, and more...; 2/7/2018-2/9/2018 (Napa): A generous delivery of black and blue core fruit. Blackberry, blueberry, ripe red raspberry, fresh vanilla bean, dark (rich) chocolate, baking spice, and some scorched earth. Less of the floral component that I sometimes associate with this wine, which is sometimes nice to have to lift up the huge fruit flavors. My sense is that the fruit was just so massive, so intense, that it drove over the palate with an elevated, uber-concentrated effort. The core fruit here is immense; I think with time, this will be an even more beautiful bottle of wine. A brilliant example of the 2014 vintage, but one I think should be opened some time after 2020 or so. It's awesome now, but I think some further integration in bottle will serve it even better.
96+ points. Try after 2020+. Thanks so much to Cristal2000 for providing this coveted juice! A true pleasure to drink. (6011 views) | | | Tasted by MAXIMUM SATISFACTION on 1/1/2018 & rated 98 points: Decanted 5 hours. Unreal silky texture and depth upfront. Mid palate and finish are still underdeveloped cut slightly short by firm tannin and massive structure. Still plenty of extracted yet precise red fruit and cooling minerals give it some nice lift. Baking spices, tobacco, dark chocolate, espresso...all here. Unfortunately some exposed harsh oak is showing through but otherwise seamless. This needs a minimum of 5 more years but made to push 20 plus years. Excellent but not quite on the same level as the 12 and 13. Surprisingly a more restrained Realm style. (2925 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Antonio Galloni
Vinous, From the Vault: Realm 2005-2018 (Mar 2022) (3/1/2022)
(Realm Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard Napa Valley Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (1/13/2017)
(Realm Cellars Napa Valley Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard, United States) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous and JamesSuckling.com. (manage subscription channels) |
| Realm Cellars Producer websiteCabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.
Used as frequently in blends as in varietal wines, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend) and in Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace. Even the bold Tannat-based wines of Madiran are now generally softened with Cabernet SauvignonBeckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard On weinlagen-infoUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)St. Helena Appellation Napa Valley
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