Realm Cellars

VISION

Making wine at the very highest level has always been at the foundation of Realm. Through “these blessed plots” – vineyard sites that we carefully curate and care for – our aim is nothing less than to illuminate and reflect the pinnacle of Napa Valley winemaking. But there’s something more that makes us tick, that makes us come to work each day with unflagging energy and commitment.

Juan Mercado laid the groundwork for Realm. He had the dream, and he risked everything to achieve it. But today a new Realm beckons. A Realm that combines the characteristics of a great start-up – the restless enthusiasm and life-affirming passion that have defined us from the beginning – with the polish, professionalism and attention to detail of a more seasoned, focused enterprise.

Ten, twenty, thirty years from now, the people at Realm may very well be different. But our vision, our quest, is that Realm stand for something beyond a bottle of great wine, beyond an individual person. Realm stands for following dreams and taking risks, establishing community and sharing good fortune. If we delight people with our wines, we will have done our job. But if we inspire them with our story – to pursue their own paths, realize their own dreams, we will have truly succeeded.

Sourcing grapes from Napa Valley’s finest vineyards has been at the heart of Realm’s philosophy since our beginning in 2002. By design, our portfolio of wines is meant to represent the realm of Napa Valley: a curation of vineyards – both legendary and those we consider to be undiscovered gems – that collectively showcase the diversity of this great winegrowing region.

Our wines comprise both single vineyard bottlings and proprietary blends. The single vineyard wines, place and terroir-driven, reflect our personal expression of vineyards with pedigrees that allow them to stand on their own. The land speaks for itself in these wines, with a guiding hand that brings out its highest, most eloquent qualities. Our proprietary wines, while blends, are varietal-driven explorations of Napa Valley’s most famous red grapes – blended in the tradition of the great wines of Bordeaux. Utilizing many of the same vineyard sources as our single vineyard wines, our proprietary wines celebrate the art and precision required of meticulous blending, combining grapes from impeccable growing sites with the judicious oversight of the human hand and palate.

The Tempest – a famous play, a violent storm, and the name of our Merlot-based blend, fashioned after the great wines of Pomerol in Bordeaux. The Tempest was the first proprietary wine Realm released, so named for the “perfect” storm of three grape varietals that became available at the same time, from the same vineyard, in 2002 -- the year of our tumultuous beginning. Though our equipment was borrowed and the winery we occupied unfinished, our grapes were sound that year – beautiful in fact – and the resulting wine reflected a fierce determination to brave the storm. The Tempest is still made with beautiful grapes, from vineyards such as Beckstoffer Orchard and Dr. Crane, as well as Blair Vineyard in Calistoga. Predominantly Merlot, with lesser amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot depending on vintage, The Tempest is a roiling cauldron of lush, bright, red fruit – a wine that shows what Merlot can be in the right hands, from the right vineyards.

“When drinking water, remember the source:” an old Chinese proverb that could apply to wine as easily as water. Located in what used to be St. Helena’s “Chinatown” in the 1920’s, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard now sits in a residential neighborhood on the west side of town, an unassuming site bordered by an old riverbed and a rock quarry. The vineyard was originally planted in 1858 by San Franciscan Dr. George Belden Crane; today it is owned by Andy Beckstoffer, who replanted it to multiple clones of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc in 1998. With extremely well-drained, gravelly soils, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane is undoubtedly one of the finest vineyards in St. Helena, and its wines are unmistakable. “You know it when you smell it,” says Winemaker Benoit Touquette. “Dr. Crane has everything you look for -- minerality, complexity, excellent fruit definition, good tannin structure; a complete wine with many layers.” Realm’s Dr. Crane is predominantly (@ 95%) Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 6 blended with a small amount of Petit Verdot.

To Kalon: \TO ka∙lon\ noun: the ideal of physical and moral beauty especially as conceived by the philosophers of classical Greece.

It was also the ancient Greeks who first said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If that is true, then To Kalon Vineyard is aptly named, considered by countless people over many decades as the preeminent vineyard of Napa Valley. We’ve been fortunate to work with grapes from Beckstoffer To Kalon since we began making wine in 2002. Comprised of a portion of the historical To Kalon vineyard planted in 1868, the 89-acre parcel was acquired by Andy Beckstoffer in 1993 and replanted to multiple clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Sitting on the west side of the Napa Valley’s Oakville appellation, Beckstoffer To Kalon grapes are only made available to a small number of boutique wine producers, who, quite simply, fashion them into some of the highest quality wines Napa Valley has to offer. “The wines from To Kalon are so dense, so opulent,” says Winemaker Benoit Touquette. “When you look at it, it’s hard to put a finger on what makes this vineyard so special. But in the wine, its beauty is unmistakable.” Realm’s Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from several blocks planted to Clones 4 and 337. The wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.