Ryan Curry, Leslie Fisher and I were getting hot pot (in 90 degree weather) in East LA when none other than Juan Mercado of Realm walks in to surprise us. Rick Matsui directed Juan over to us to drop by and say hello and Juan brought a little gift! a 375ml of their very very newly bottled Realm Tempest. What a wine! I’m also glad realm is doing 375s in 07 cause this the is singing and it’s perfect with some real hearty food.
2007 Realm Cellars The Tempest- USA, California, Napa Valley (7/8/2009)
Popped and poured out of a 375, just bottled.
a really powerful muscular wine with a dense fruit core of dark berries that hits your palate on the first sip and coats it with that structure. The black fruit peels away to expose raspberries, forest floor, cedar with a dirt like tannin at the end. The finish goes on for awhile with the secondary characteristics really holding court. I love that petite verdot character it really shows on the finish to give it that great structure in the mouth. This is a greatly put together wine, the wine couldn’t have been in bottle for more than a week or two and its potential is exploding out of the bottle. Hold it, drink it now, whatevers… it’ll be great! (93 pts.)
The guys at Realm are just fantastic…this doesn’t surprise me.
My first exposure: We were tasting at Copain last year with John Davis and his wife, and Wells asked us if we were visiting Realm while we were there. We said no, and he called Juan on his cell and asked if he could fit us in the next day. Juan obliged, despite having to catch a flight in the afternoon at SFO, and let us taste everything that they had in barrel. We left blown away and delighted that he let us order wine and put us on the list. Juan was so gracious for a bunch of shlubs from the midwest.
No clue, no mention of it on the bottle.
06 was Blend of 68% Merlot, 16% Petit Verdot, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Cabernet Franc. So maybe something similar?
Just found out from Rick that they just bottled the wine last friday O_O bottle shock be damned!