2021 Realm "The Bard" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

After sampling 86 wines over a two-day marathon tasting with Realm Cellars co-owners Scott Becker and winemaker Benoit Touquette, I had no doubt that one would make my top 10 list of the year. It would be The Bard, which will be available beginning in 2024. It is a very giving wine that promises great rewards for long-term cellaring and is enjoyable three full nights in a row, never losing its zeal if having one great glass each night is your prerogative. Power and muscle frame the core of this towering red, with its red-toned fruits and rich, toasty oak spices nuanced by bay Laurel and pastis. Full-bodied with tremendous decadence of chocolaty tannins that are pliant and billowy, lifted by supple blackberry and black raspberry fruit, a drizzle of cherry coulis, and resolving with refined tobacco, cedar wood spices, and laced with coriander and cumin aromatics. It has a satisfyingly rich finish. Number five of my top 10 wines of 2023. (JC)

After choosing to not make any red wines in 2020, we’re thrilled to have some Realm wines back in stock. The wines at Realm are the epitome of no expense spared, fanatical attention to detail, micro-lot winemaking. The Realm team is absolutely focused on perfection and will settle for nothing less. Fruit for the 2021 Bard comes from their own exceptional estate holdings in Stag’s Leap (Moonracrer) and Houyi Vineyard on Pritchard Hill, plus a list of the most highly regarded growers in the valley: Blair, Beckstoffer To Kalon, Beckstoffer Bourn, Larkmead, Farella and Bettinelli Upper Range. At a recent visit to Realm, the 21 Bard was showing beautifully! In fact it was perhaps even more expressive than some of their other higher-end wines designed for extended aging. If you're looking to see what all the fuss is about with Realm, The Bard is the perfect peek behind the curtain. A nose that dances between power and delicacy - there are lifted floral and dried herb notes, but also deeply saturated ripe fruits and base earth tones. Incredibly pure fruit on the palate with creme de cassis, ripe red currant, mulberry, baking spice, volcanic rick tinges, exotic oak spice and subtle pencil shavings. The texture is sublime, very fine, silky but tactile tannins are engulfed in luxurious ripe fruit. Full-bodied, but not cumbersome, rich but refined. The 2021 Bard showed very well even in the context of the seriously the stacked line up we tasted with Scott and Benoit that included upcoming releases of 2021 Hartwell XX, To Kalon, Houyi, and Absurd. By their own admission, a lot of thought, and time goes into making The Bard the strongest wine possible from their incredibly impressive range of fruit sources. Don't miss this one.