Red Blend “Houyi Vineyard”, Realm Cellars, Napa Valley, CA, 2022

Overall Critical Consensus

The 2022 Houyi Vineyard is widely regarded as a high-scoring, structured Napa Valley mountain Cabernet-based Bordeaux blend. Critics consistently describe it as powerful, tightly coiled, and refined, with notable depth and aging potential.

Major Professional Ratings (2022 Vintage)

• 97 points – Decanter
  Praised for its precision and layered complexity, showing dark fruit, cedar, sage, mocha, and spice. Noted for being polished and well-defined despite the density typical of Pritchard Hill wines.
• 96 points – James Suckling
  Described as elegant and relatively fresh for its site, with black and red fruits, floral tones, spearmint, cocoa, and spice. Highlighted for its lift and balance.
• 95 points – Vinous (Antonio Galloni)
  Characterized as dense, structured, and expressive, with plum, mocha, floral notes, and spice. Emphasized power balanced by refinement and length.
• 94 points – Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
  Notes black cherry and blackberry fruit with dried herbs and dusty tannins. Medium to full-bodied with firm structure and a somewhat coarse but persistent finish.
• Aggregated critical range (retail summaries such as K&L Wines)
  Consistently placed in the 94–97 point range across major critics.
• Independent composite scores (various tasting panels/aggregators)
  Some non-official aggregated ratings place it in the 96–98 range, though these are not from a single critic source.

Common Tasting Descriptors Across Reviews

• Fruit: blackberry, black cherry, cassis, plum
• Oak and spice: cedar, mocha, cocoa, baking spice, tobacco
• Herbal/mineral notes: sage, graphite, crushed rock, dried herbs
• Structure: firm, fine-grained tannins; full-bodied but tightly structured
• Style: powerful Napa mountain Cabernet expression with notable freshness and precision for the vintage

Bottom Line

The 2022 Houyi Vineyard is considered an upper-tier Napa Cabernet-based blend with consistently high critical scores in the mid to upper 90s. It is built for aging, with a current profile that is structured, concentrated, and still tightly wound rather than immediately plush or open-knit.

About Houyi Vineyard:

Houyi Vineyard is Realm’s estate vineyard on Pritchard Hill. Tucked away on the eastern side of Napa Valley, Pritchard Hill is home to some of the best-known wine names in the world. At an elevation of nearly 1300 feet, our 22 acre vineyard sits above the fog line, its vines soaking in the morning sun. The vineyard is full of dense, volcanic rock. These unique soils provide an environment for the vines to produce concentrated fruit. This wine is rich and complex yet soft and elegant. It is approachable in a way that runs counter to many mountain wines. A paradox…

Realm has produced a single vineyard cabernet sauvignon from Houyi Vineyard since 2013. After cherishing this site for nearly a decade, we had the good fortune of acquiring the vineyard from the Chang family in 2022. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue the Chang family’s legacy as stewards of this special land.

About the Label

We first saw “Air Water Earth” by Luchita Hurtado, a Venezuelan-born, Los Angeles-based artist, a few years ago on a visit to the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Los Angeles. The painting spoke to us, as did the story of Hurtado’s life, and the piece stayed on our minds for months and years afterwards. When the gallerist later sent us a book of Hurtado’s work which included “Air Water Earth,” we knew it was meant to be: here was the ideal work of art to express the story of Houyi. Appearing for the first time with the 2022 vintage of Houyi, this label was created to mark Realm’s acquisition of the Pritchard Hill vineyard the same year, making it the fourth estate-grown wine in our portfolio.

As the title implies, “Air Water Earth” references balance in the natural world and was created at a time when Hurtado was considering the effects of climate change. The concept of balance resonates deeply with us as farmers and landowners who have lived through two devastating fire seasons and for whom the changing environment is an existential concern. But there’s something about Hurtado’s work that calms amidst the stress. At just 10”x10”, “Air Water Earth” is an intimate piece that invites you in. It is beautiful and tranquil, with layers and themes that are both universal and personal. Serendipitously, it is also an apt reflection of the myth of Nine Suns and Houyi. According to this Chinese legend, there were ten suns that one day appeared all at once; Houyi was an archer who shot down nine of the suns, restoring balance to the earth.

Luchita Hurtado is a fascinating artist whose work encompassed many styles, movements and themes throughout a career that spanned eight decades. Her work was rarely shown until she was in her 90s, when the discovery of a trove of her paintings and other works led to several solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and London. Hurtado gained international recognition and was named one of Time 100’s most influential people in 2019. She died in 2020 at the age of 99.

Completed as part of a series in 2013, the crayon and acrylic on canvas “Air Water Earth” hangs at our Houyi Estate.

96 Points Jeb Dunnuck