Winemaker Notes
The perfect balance of bright fruit and brooding undertones, this is a classic Napa Cabernet with notes of creme de cassis, red and dark fruits, and dark exotic spices. Impeccably balanced with excellent length and depth, bright acidity and layers that reveal itself over time.
Blend: 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot, 1% Charbono, 1% Petite Sirah
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very focused, pure and well balanced, showing great poise and freshness for a full-bodied Napa red. This cabernet sauvignon-dominant blend is bold and packed with dark fruit, toasted oak and dark spices. Black cherries, dried blueberries, blackberries, black pepper and chocolate mint. Well concentrated and delicious. Drink now or hold.
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Decanter
A blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot, 1% Petite Sirah, and 1% Charbono, sourced from top vineyard sites, including Bourn for Petite Sirah, Tofanelli for Charbono, and selections from Upper Range, Moon Racer, Blair (Calistoga), and Farella. This wine delivers Realm's rich, dark fruit signature, with excellent density and concentration, building on the full-bodied palate. Suave, well-integrated tannins frame notes of tobacco and liquid graphite, driving a long, mineral-laced finish. Crunchy dark berry fruit and wild sweet herbs add complexity, promising further refinement with age — a cellar-worthy wine in this vintage.
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Jeb Dunnuck
One of the valley's great, great values, the 2022 The Bard is based on 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 4% Franc, and the rest a mix of varieties. It has a killer nose of bright red and blue fruits intermixed with spring flowers, graphite, baking spices, and incense. This carries to a beautifully balanced, full-bodied red that has a lively, elegant mouthfeel and fine tannins. It competes with wines at 2-3 times its going rate, especially in a vintage like 2022.
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Vinous
The 2022 The Bard is packed with dark cherry, plum, mocha, new leather and incense. Medium in body and vibrant. It shows the riper side of the year yet retains terrific balance. There's plenty of immediacy and appeal. This is the largest production wine at Realm, so it naturally includes fruit harvested before, during and after the heat.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Cedar, mixed red and black cherries, cassis and violet notes appear on the nose of Realm's 2022 The Bard. A blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot and 1% each Charbono and Petite Sirah, it's full-bodied, rich and chocolaty, maybe just a touch warm but reasonably balanced given the challenges of the vintage. Long and slightly coarsely textured on the finish, it looks to be a wine to consume over the next decade.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.