 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Region | California |
| Appellation | Napa Valley |
| Category | Red Wine |
| Classification |
|
|
| Cat | Region | Year | Producer, Wine | Size | C(s) | Bt(s) | HKD/Cs | HKD/Bt | Score | Critic | |
 |
California | 2012 | Realm Cellars, The Bard Proprietary Blend | BT12 | 1 (12) | - | HK$27,000 | - | 100 | JD | |
|
California | 2012 | Realm Cellars, The Bard Proprietary Blend | BT | - | 5 | - | HK$2,500 | 100 | JD | |
|
California | 2012 | Realm Cellars, The Bard Proprietary Blend | BT6 | 1 (6) | - | HK$14,250 | - | 100 | JD | |
| All wines are subject to remaining unsold. We offer free delivery for purchase exceeding a certain amount. Please check Delivery Rates for details. | |||||||||||
The 2012 Proprietary Red The Bard, a 500-case blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot, is meant to showcase the finest Cabernet Sauvignon grapes they access from such great Napa Valley sites as Beckstoffer To Kalon, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, Fortuna and Weitz. Beautiful notes of pungent baking spices, licorice, melted chocolate, espresso, blackberries and cassis soar from the glass of this ostentatious, flamboyant, classic, locked-and-loaded Cabernet Sauvignon. There is some tannin lurking under the surface, but this majestic superstar behaves as if it wants to be drunk young as well as over the next 15-20 years.
Realm Cellars boasts an impressive team of highly motivated men and women led by Juan Mercado and winemaker Benoit Touquette. The consulting winemaker is Michel Rolland. Realm accesses some outstanding vineyard sources, particularly those owned by the omnipresent, bigger-than-life force of Napa Valley, Andy Beckstoffer. Fate was not kind to Realm in the beginning with their first vintage, 2003, completely destroyed by a fire in a Vallejo warehouse where it was being stored. But Juan Mercado, a former medic in the first Gulf war, and someone who learned his trade from the likes of Thomas Rivers Brown, Michel Rolland, John Kongsgaard and Les Behrens, stuck with it, and is now producing incredible wines. These 2012s represent the finest efforts Realm has produced to date. The heart of the Realm philosophy is to access some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyards and put together either single-vineyard bottlings or creative proprietary blends. All of these 2012s were outrageously delicious, and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Score: 99 Robert Parker (RP), The Wine Advocate (WA), October 2014
Starting with the 2012 The Bard, this incredible blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot comes from a number of great sites including To Kalon, Dr. Crane, Fortuna, and Weitz. It’s just now starting to show some maturity and has a wonderfully complex bouquet of blackcurrants, dried spices, chocolate, cedarwood, and smoke tobacco. This carries to a full-bodied, seamless, sensationally textured 2012 with sweet tannins, no hard edges, and a heavenly finish. It actually reminds me slightly of the 2009 Haut Bailly! This is thrilling wine to enjoy any time over the coming 10-15 years or more.
Score: 100 Jeb Dunnuck (JD), JebDunnuck.com (JD), August 2020