2018 Realm Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Levensohn Vineyard
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
The 2018 Levensohn emerges from a site outside of St. Helena, next to Bourn and Dr. Crane. It has a beautiful nose of leafy herbs, earth, tobacco, and hints of violet that are carried by beautiful cassis and blue-tinged fruits. With full-bodied richness, a plush, elegant mouthfeel, and ripe, silky tannins, it’s another beautiful wine in the lineup that has both richness and freshness. It’s going to benefit from just short-term cellaring (it’s certainly one of the more approachable wines in the lineup) and evolve for two decades with no issues.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Levensohn Vineyard, a new wine in this range, is enticing. It is sourced from a small vineyard in St. Helena Realm took over a few years ago. Bright red berry fruit, rose petal, spice, pomegranate and blood orange infuse the 2018 with tons of St. Helena character. Elegant and lithe, the 2018 is a very pretty Cabernet, with bright acids and plenty of raciness. Stylistically, the Levensohn offers a bit less depth than is typical at Realm. Among other things, that gives the wine quite a bit of immediacy and overall appeal. There will be two vintages of the Levensohn for Realm - 2018 and 2019. The 2020 was lost to fire, and then the vineyard was sold.
This single-vineyard wine wine is new to Realm from this 2018 vintage, although they began farming it in 2017. It is located next to Beckstoffer's Bourn vineyard, to the west of St. Helena, but produces a very different style of wine "because of the veins of gravel and rock in this region." This is a particularly rocky vineyard, requiring extra water and canopy management attention. Composed of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Levensohn Vineyard reveals a deep garnet-purple color and quite a broody/earthy nose to begin, opening out to a core of warm blackcurrants, plum preserves and mulberries, plus nuances of tar, new leather and wild thyme. The full-bodied, taut, sturdy palate is chock-full of earth-laced fruit, framed by grainy tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing savory and just a little chewy.
About the producer
Realm Cellars has become one of Napa Valley’s most compelling modern estates, known for site-driven Cabernet Sauvignon. Drawing from some of the valley’s most sought-after vineyards, Realm’s wines consistently earn top critical acclaim while remaining firmly rooted in place.