Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard
Cabernet Sauvignon
St. Helena

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Our 2023 Dr. Crane (81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Cabernet Franc) was co-fermented in a single 4-ton closed-top tank for 28 days on the skins, resulting in profound extraction of color and flavors. After basket pressing, it was aged in the rare Taransaud T5 barrels. The “T5s” are five-year air-dried and highly sought after. As always, we continually tasted throughout the winemaking process, but this wine was complete from the beginning. Bottled without fining or filtration, allowed for maximum development of mouthfeel and texture.

Anytime somebody says Napa Cabernet all tastes the same, this is my “Hold my beer!” vineyard that I pour a glass of that can only come from Dr. Crane and nowhere else. The nose on Dr. Crane is always super unique with its almost crystallized expression of fruit. This does not have the intense black fruit that Vine Hill does, and it expresses its Cabernet Sauvignon completely differently than To Kalon does. This has spicy raspberry, vibrant rose petal, African spices, Dry earth, and dark chocolate. The lift and the freshness on the palate are part of what makes this one so unique. It’s almost as if all the fruit within the wine was given an electric shock. One of those true wines where, if you’ve seen the soil within the vineyard when you try the wine, you can taste the soil.

I quote my friend Karen MacNeil, wine historian, author of the Wine Bible, “2023 was as perfect as any Napa vintage in living memory. It was Napa’s 1961 Bordeaux.” I remember the 1961 Bordeaux wines well, first tasting most of the First Growths in the 1970s. They were very structured wines, wines that did take a little time to find their “perfect” stride, and when they did, they were wines you never forgot. Across the board, the TOR 2023 wines are instant classics.

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