Lots of blackcurrant, blueberry, dark chocolate, burnt orange and licorice on the nose. Ink and tar, too. It’s full-bodied with rich, concentrated layers of fruit and spice and firm, smooth tannins. Drink from 2023.

Score: 97 James Suckling (JS), JamesSuckling.com, January 2021

Made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr Crane Vineyard displays an opaque purple-black color. It saunters confidently out of the glass with compelling notes of warm black plums, blackcurrant cordial, Morello cherries and black raspberries followed by an opulent perfume of exotic spices, dusty soil, rose oil and crushed rocks with a waft of sandalwood. Full-bodied, rich, seductive and so, so spicy, the palate possesses a multitude of savory, earth and preserved fruit layers, framed by an achingly beautiful velvety texture and seamless freshness, finishing long, long, long—truly showing off its latent power. Like a gorgeous intellectual, this is a wine that will absolutely turn heads and create a stir.

The team at Realm seemed to have played it ultra-cautious in 2017. In spite of all the challenges caused by the Labor Day heat wave followed by the October fires that year, they have produced a strong lineup of very impressive wines. Fans should note that no Falstaff, Farella Vineyard or Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Franc labels were produced in 2017, due to the situation that fruit was still hanging in these key vineyards during the fires. "In 2018, we had a lot of time to pick. We had a lot of time to make the wines," winemaker Benoit Touquette informed me. "Not to get greedy with Mother Nature was the challenge. We didn’t have the huge crops that some people had. We could pick at our leisure. If you did the right viticulture, it was an easy vintage." Indeed, the Realm 2018s have an effortless, carefree purity about them, with all the bright, energetic, crunchy fruit that is a characteristic of this cooler vintage. This is not to say that that these wines do not possess that decadent personality fans have come to love. On the contrary, there is a lot of impactful intensity with these 2018s. Yet they seem to bear a cheery skip in their step, which is going to make you fall in love with this winery all over again.

Score: 100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown (LPB), The Wine Advocate (WA), October 2020

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard is a classic Realm wine. Rich, sumptuous and opulent to the core, the 2018 hits all the right notes. Inky dark red/purplish fruit, espresso, lavender and rose petal build in a racy, flamboyant wine loaded with character. The 2018 takes all the Crane signatures and amplifies them, including the tannins, which will need a few years to settle down. There is a to like here.

These spring releases from Realm pick up where the fall lineup left off. For the sake of clarity, I repeat my text from the first set of 2018 Realm releases below.I was quite frankly blown away by the 2018s I tasted from Realm recently. When I first started tasting the wines, more than a decade ago, Realm was one of many virtual Napa Valley wineries relying exclusively on purchased fruit and operating out of shared, rented facilities, all funded literally on a shoestring. Today, Realm is a true estate. The collection of estate vineyards continues to grow, while a real, physical winery provides the necessary tools to operate at the highest level by really focusing on the details. The results are evident, as these 2018s attest. One of the most recent evolutions is a choice to emphasize a bit more energy and freshness, a small adjustment that has given these rich, flamboyant wines that measure of balance that was occasionally missing in the past. The 2018s will be released in two tranches (September 2020 and February 2021), so these notes are for the wines in the first release. Prices are retail, higher than prices for mailing list members. Kudos to Proprietor Scott Becker and Winemaker Benoit Touquette for these stunning 2018s.

Score: 98 Antonio Galloni (AG), The Wine Advocate (WA), January 2021

The 2018 Beckstoffer Dr. Crane is gorgeous, offering classic 2018 purity in its blue fruits, cassis, chocolate, tobacco, cold fireplace, and loamy earth-like aromas and flavors. With full-bodied richness and depth, it has flawless balance, lots of building tannins, and a powerful, backward style that´s going to benefit from bottle age. It doesn’t have that “je ne sais quoi” quality of the 2015 yet shares similarities with the 2016 given its purity and structure. Hide bottles for 4-5 years and enjoy over the following 25+.

Score: 98+ Jeb Dunnuck (JD), JebDunnuck.com (JD), January 2021