Big and ripe black fruit and dark soil elements dominate. A rich Napa Oakville bomb that carries enough mineral lift to keep it all in focus. Seems to be getting heavier with time. Drink now.
In a blind amongst some stellar performers (Kinsman, Macdonald, Scarecrow, Colgin), the 2019 Absurd showed as lighter bodied (I mean, for a Realm) and redder fruited than I would have anticipated. It…
Wild berry jubilee, cassis, cinnamon, and vanilla Schnapps dominate the profile here. In my previous note a couple of years ago, I characterized the initial experience of this wine as having "a…
A push-pull showing this time around. At once vanilla-chocolatey, ripe, and rich, while also liqueur-heavy and a bit angular, the 2013 Realm To Kalon comes off both blocky and lush in the same sip.…
Right out of the gate, this puppy was off and rolling with fruit, spice, fruit, spice, and fruit. Decanting a few hours helped to fan and fill out its form, but this barely needed to stretch its legs…
Unripe blackberry and a decent force of tannin and frame present good persistence if but a bit angular in its present form. There is a lot to like here, with a modern hit of fruit flavor served on a…
Much improved since my last bottle 2.5 years ago, this Bard is full of dark berry, bitter chocolate, allspice, asphalt and black soil notes that present initially as somewhat brooding and heavy, but…
This took a while to get to where it needed to be, but once it found its sense of place, it fell into a wonderfully balanced expansion of flavor. Small Coravin pours over the course of a week barely…
A chocolate cream and vanilla bean dream that saturates the entire mouth with creamy oak, massively luscious dark fruit, chocolate syrup, and alcohol. This behaved very much like the Realm Crane we…
At the French Laundry. A mouthful of ripe fruit illustrative of what one might expect from this house and this site. A whopping wine from a big vintage from a vineyard that often produces succulent…
Well this was a very pleasant surprise. I've written quite a bit about the up-and-down journey of this particular wine, but I'm happy to report that this most recent bottle was fantastic. Whether it…
Plush and inviting as is typical for this wine with a bit of bottle age, and as is especially typical for this wine in this vintage. Blackberry and blueberry compote, chocolate pudding, black…
It's got that rich and chocolatey Benoit on top of a Hershey's black cherry Sunday thing going on that draws you in with the first sip. Cardamom and Christmas spices soon follow, along with a wave of…
Pushing two years since my last bottle of the 2016 Falstaff, and with the 2018 vintage Realm allocation deadline quickly approaching, I was of course compelled to venture into my stash and see what's…
I've been sitting on these bottles for over two years now and decided to check what's under the hood in hopes that this 2015 would nudge me enough to coerce-out my plastic cash to invest in the…
I've followed and reviewed this wine quite a bit over the course of the last few years and it has certainly delivered a consistently lushly dark and hedonistically round profile. For those who know…
Well... it tastes like Sauvignon Blanc. It's fresh. It's crisp. It hits the lychee, grapefruit, yellow apple, lemon and lime zest, and melon rind notes as expected. It's... Sauvignon Blanc.
Very good! VASTLY improved from last year. Chocolate, blackberry, black wet soil, earth, and still hints of vanilla bean (but not overly processed). Black core fruit. Balanced nicely. Notable weight…
Exquisitely balanced with richness akin to the Memento Mori, with just a little less of the bitter dark chocolate notes coming out (which I was surprised about when I later learned this was the Realm…
Almost a year and a half since I last had this wine. I thought I had drunk the last of this vintage of Tempest, but the cellar Santa unearthed this bottle hiding in the back.
White stone and white melon. No display of yellow citrus, tropical, or lemon/lime zest notes. A small detectable grass note. Linear and straightforward on the attack, with a Pinot Grigio lightness…
Barrel sample. A fresh and vivacious example of Crane, registering a little high and red-fruited at the moment. A great deal of speed and pop here, with notes of bing cherry, red raspberry, cassis,…
As Cristal2000 mentioned, this is likely the best Moonracer to date. Far more complex and expanding in the palate than the 2014, and a worthy follow-up to the 2015, this 2016 Moonracer delivers…
