As a follow up to the previous flights, #3 features wines in a more modern, opulent style.
2021 Caymus – balanced, slightly muted, sweet melted vanilla, blackberry jelly, hint of herbal, hint of oaky smoke (1st by avg rank – only wine with zero last place votes, consistent crowd pleaser, of course this was going to happen right)
2022 Orin Swift Palermo – big alcohol, bubblegum, super extracted fruit juice, decent acid, balanced tannin, long fruit finish (2nd – even spread of votes, nobody loved it or hated it)
2021 Realm The Bard – “woodsy”, slight herbal savoriness, warm cassis jam, soft herbal sweetness, most interesting of the flight (3rd but by far the most first place votes of any wine, also racked up last place votes. Most polarizing of the night)
2020 Nickel & Nickel State Ranch – melted chocolate, blackberry jam, slightly harsh, decent tannin, dry but good finish, less thick than the others (4th – middle of the pack, nobody strong feelings either way)
2021 Lewis – milder, straight fresh new oak barrel, higher acid, higher tannin, burny (5th – most last place votes, the oak was showing hard and tasters picked up on it immediately, not surprised it needs ago but it’s what we had access to)
The group was pretty split at the top with Caymus and Realm nearly tied under every scoring method, while Lewis was a clear consensus last. I placed Realm as my personal #1 FWIW.
This means our Grand Finale is upcoming this weekend! We’ll be taking SL Artemis & Round Pond from our “Bordeauxesque” Flight #1, Frog’s Leap & Chappellet from our “Traditional Napa” Flight #2, and Caymus & The Bard from our “Opulent” Flight #3. I’m sure more surprises are in store.
by der_radfahrer
3 Comments
Who is in your group? This is a fun experiment and, you’re right, Caymus is a crowd pleasing, Coca-Cola wine, that people won’t hate unless they’re major wine enthusiasts and also know there’s Caymus there.
What was the aeration approach for this? Double decant, anything like that?
Some of those wines are more similar than people realize