A big and juicy red with blackberries, lightly dried fruit and blueberries. Crushed stone. Dried orange peel. Shows muscle yet it is toned and tensioned. Grows on you as you taste it. Give this time to soften. Best after 2028.

Score: 98 James Suckling (JS), JamesSuckling.com, November 2023

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Becksto!er Dr. Crane Vineyard is a soft, sensual wine, as so many wines from this site can be. Silky, plush contours wrap around a core of red/purplish fruit, rose petals, cinnamon, cedar and new leather. A wine of finesse and understatement, the 2021 is very beautiful, but also a bit less showy than it can be.

Realm is, without question, the most ambitious winery in Napa Valley today. Realizing the perils of depending solely on purchased fruit, principals Scott Becker and Benoit Touquette have put together an enviable collection of estate vineyards, starting with Hartwell in Stags Leap, then Farella in Coombsville and most recently Houyi, ensuring that Realm will always have a dependable supply of estate fruit. It’s a bold move that has been matched by very few other players in Napa Valley and only one on a large scale that I can think of. I tasted the 2021s at Houyi, a spectacular site on Pritchard Hill that also affords striking views of the area. The wines are seriously impressive and also show a gradual move towards a style that favors a bit more vibrancy than in the past. "It was a year with very small berries and high tannins," Touquette explained. "We had to be careful to not extract too much."

Score: 96 Antonio Galloni (AG), Vinous Media (VM), December 2023