2018 | Realm Cellars | The Falstaff

Beautiful black cherry, blueberry, spring flowers, incense, and forest floor notes all emerge from the glass, and this awesome wine has a purity of fruit that is just about off the charts. Medium to full-bodied and flawlessly balanced, with good acidity and silky tannins.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 2018 The Falstaff is composed of 65% Cabernet Franc (from Upper Range vineyard), 25% Cabernet Sauvignon (from Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard) and 10% Merlot (from Realm SLD, Blair and Orchard vineyards). Deep garnet-purple colored, it charges out of the gate with bright, vibrant cassis, black raspberries and warm redcurrants scents plus hints of wild sage, rose hip tea, fallen leaves and fragrant earth. Full-bodied, the palate reveals a rock-solid structure of firm, grainy and lively freshness, adeptly supporting the taut, muscular black and red fruits, finishing long with fantastic purity.

• James Suckling: Dried geraniums and lavender on the nose with ripe blackcurrants, cloves and mocha. Hint of dried mint and eucalyptus, too. It’s full-bodied and concentrated with firm, integrated tannins. Structured, yet juicy and elegant.

Producer Information

Realm Cellars is a Napa Valley producer with a winery and estate vineyards in Stags Leap District. The operation is known for its powerful Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines from premium vineyards, and is quickly becoming one of Napa's cult producers. There is a devoted mailing list following, and much of the wine is sold directly to members, or to restaurants. The business was founded in 2002 by Juan Mercado and Wendell Laidley as a virtual winery, using five tons of fruit from each of Beckstoffer To Kalon and Dominus Estate's Napanook vineyards. Other vineyards such as Beckstoffer Dr Crane and Farella were added as sources in following years. The wines were initially made at Sherwin Family Vineyards on Spring Mountain. Vinification later moved to Chateau Boswell near St Helena. Current majority owner Scott Becker is a US Air Force veteran and Harvard MBA, who previously worked at Cakebread Cellars (Jack Cakebread also had ties to the Air Force) and Harlan Estate. Becker took over in 2011 with Bordeaux-trained winemaker and part-owner Benoit Touquette, saving the estate from bankruptcy. Winemaking from the 2012 vintage placed extra emphasis on longer-term aging potential and freshness over fruit-forward characters. The wines continue to garner higher acclaim and are hard to find on retail shelves. Realm now also owns its own vineyard, after acquiring Hartwell Estate Vineyards in Stags Leap District in late 2015. From the 2016 vintage, the wines have been made at the former Hartwell winery. Today, half the production is evenly split between single-vineyard wines and propietary blends from sites all over Napa. An important expansion to the vineyard portfolio came in 2018 via a partnership with the Farella family in Coombsville. Realm took over the management of the 30-acre (12-hectare) Farella vineyard in 2018, retaining some fruit for their own wines, some for Tom Farella's family label, and selling some to other wineries. Then in 2020 Realm added a further two adjacent parcels to their estate holding. These extra 5 acres (2ha) had been part of the original Hartwell property, and are earmarked for a future "Hartwell Vineyard" bottling. The estate-grown wine is called Moonracer, and is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Its name is a tribute to the Wappo Indian tribe, who held a series of nocturnal Moon Races, and whose legends gave Stags Leap its name. The first vintage of this wine was the 2014, released in 2017. More generally, wines at Realm follow a Shakespearean theme and every bottle features this quote from King Richard II: "This blessed plot, this earth, this realm…" While the Beckstoffer To Kalon and Dr Crane Cabernets are still key offerings, "The Bard" is the highest production wine – a pan-Napa Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend. "The Absurd" is a selection of the best barrels from across the portfolio, and only amounts to a few hundred cases.

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