Can’t afford to buy Realm anymore - their prices went through the roof right after their scores did the same a number of years ago - but as one of their original customers from the 2002 vintage I still have quite a few of the earlier vintages in my cellar. This 2009 Beckstoffer is absolutely fantastic. Classic Napa cabernet with great aromatics, great fruit along with some secondary flavors, and impeccable balance leading to a long, lingering finish. Just brilliant. — 13 days ago
@Jason and Jennie i see why this is your favorite vineyard. This is outstanding. The nose is violets, black fruit, oak, and graphite - subtle. The pallet is gorgeous; blackberry, cherries, chocolate... wraps up with acidity and tannins wrestling to win the close. I wish every wine had this story. — 15 days ago
Such a love/hate relationship with the fancy tissue paper on bottles. I was under the impression I was opening their cab blend from 2014, not their single vineyard Dr Crane. I don’t know if the tissue paper is different, but I figured after tearing away the paper, maybe it was meant to be that this was the bottle to open...lucky me! About 100 cases, and the first vintage this wine was produced, I believe.
I’m between a 94-95 here. Having never had this wine before (though I really enjoyed their silky 2014 cab), but knowing Dr Crane is my favorite vineyard, I had high expectations. I wasn’t in a place to be able to decant this and give it the time it deserved, unfortunately, but figured the rich and open knit nature of Napa’s 2014 vintage would be to my benefit. I found this to be a solid expression of Beckstoffer Dr Crane...near purple/black in the glass with explosive aromatics. Juniper, violets, charcoal, stone, mocha, black currant, blackberry and unabashedly dark. Much of that translate to the palate...a core of dark fruits and beautiful floral notes with a spine of “minerality”. This is a big wine, and obviously improved the longer it was open. I was able to cork this and come back to it a couple hours later and it was more layered, with chewy tannins (to be expected). Although I wish I would have known I was opening this so that I could have been more prepared, it was certainly delicious. Decant for 2-3hrs if opening now, or hold a couple more years. — 17 days ago
Hasn’t shown any improvement since 1st btl. — a month ago
Jimmy Vo
Very approachable now ... — 6 days ago