2016 | Realm Cellars | Houyi Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Houyi Vineyard offers a massive blast of blue fruits, crushed violets, spice box, and new leather. This beauty comes from a site next to David Arthur and has a ripe, rounded, and incredibly sexy style that belies its mountain terroir. Still, it has plenty of underlying tannins, impeccable balance, and one seriously long finish.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: One-hundred percent Cabernet Sauvignon from the Nine Suns property, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Houyi Vineyard Pritchard Hill is very deep purple-black colored with quite an earthy/mineral-laced nose with notions of black soil, cast iron pan, crushed rocks and truffles with a core of black cherries and blackcurrants plus nuances of wild sage, charcuterie and black olives. The palate is full-bodied and very structured in the mouth with firm, grainy tannins and a lively line supporting the taut, earthy flavors, finishing with great length.

• James Suckling: Lots of perfume and dark-fruit aromas with floral and burnt-orange undertones. Full-bodied and very, very refined and long. It goes on for minutes. Such subtlety and wonderful tannins. Love it.

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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