2011 Realm Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (33) Avg Score: 94.3 points

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  1/15/2024 - DGR Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Decanted for 2 hours. Paired wonderfully with dry aged ribeye. Smooth with a long finish, indeed 2011 was a good vintage for those who knew what to do. This wine should drink well for many more years.

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  1/5/2024 - tcarter Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Terrific wine despite the tough vintage.

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  12/9/2023 - walkerjfw wrote: 95 Points

  Brought this to Genevieve's Kitchen, great BYO in Doylestown PA. In my cellar from release, good excuse to open this. Had this with a short rib bolognese. Decanted and rebottled to take to the restaurant, was open about 75 minutes prior to drinking, drank over an hour.
  
  Color was a dark brick/garnet, minor separation. Nose of black currants, baking spice. Bright red fruits, cherry, red currant, fig. The red fruit has a bit of sweetness, candied cherry quality on the mid palate. Picking up fig and some balsamic. Classic Dr Crane red fruit profile. Tannins resolved and sweetened. Full/medium body (by Napa standards), long finish.
  
  I did not afford this as long a decant as other tasters - will look to do so for future bottles. The decant here is a must to get it to show, this was open and expressive after an hour but did continue to evolve over the dinner. The 2011 vintage was much maligned at release but the bottles in my cellar have been ok...I would not have expected such a great showing from this wine in terms of depth and expression given a (misplaced) bias against the vintage.
  
  Great showing on this evening, surprise to the upside. Worth drinking now if you have these, this bottle has another 5-7 years in it

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  7/19/2023 - tcarter Likes this wine: 96 Points

  2 hour decant. Drinking beautifully.

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  12/16/2021 - ozziewine Likes this wine: 94 Points

  My first Realm Dr. Crane (and the first Realm vintage that Benoit oversaw).
  Gave this around two hours of air. After tasting on opening it was a tad rough and the air really helped round off the edges. Served slightly chilled after 30 mins of fridg time...for me, chilling was essential.
  The color indicates its' age as it is starting to fade to brick-ish ever so slightly.
  On the palate it was mellow, as opposed to bright, with dark fruit flavors and a tobacco or smokey essence. Still retains a fascinating subtle intensity (a contradiction?) and a touch of sweetness with a lush, mid-weight feel.
  After days on nitrogen, the final glass was again very good but, in the end, it just lacks a bit of oomph that I get from most Realm wines, perhaps due to its' age and/or the vintage.
  But that said, this was still another great Realm wine that was most satisfying. Looking forward to the day I get an allocation for the recent vintages to compare and contrast.
  If you have this vintage of the Crane, I'd suggest drinking sooner than later if you prefer more fruit. If you prefer them super smooth with less fruit, no worries as this will hold together for a few more years at least.

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