Based on 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and aged 19 months in 75% new French oak, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard offers smoky blackcurrants, tobacco, gravelly earth, liquid violets, and freshly sharpened pencil. It's full-bodied, with a concentrated, layered, multi-dimensional mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. I always find a certain Pessac/Graves-like character from this site (I've often compared this wine to Haut-Brion), and the 2023 has it in spades. This brilliant, sensationally complex, layered, and virtually perfect wine will keep for 30+ years. Drink 2029-2055.

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard is deep and quite potent, almost uncharacteristically so for this St. Helena site, where wines tend to be silkier and more finessed. Readers will have to be patient, as this deceptively mid-weight Cabernet Sauvignon packs a pretty serious punch. Here, partial aging in concrete seems to have closed the wine down a bit. This is another wine that responds so well to aeration. (AG)