Just curious why no critics have reviewed any of the 2022 Realm wines? They used to taste them on a regular basis. Now it seems awfully quiet. Is Realm not allowing/encouraging visits? What say you! 
Hi Craig - I’m tasting with Realm on Tuesday this week and will get the notes turned around and published ASAP. (Hopefully, this Thursday, if not next.)
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Thanks so much Lisa. Will you publish here? Regards, Craig 
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I’ll follow up with some impressions after the tasting and a firm publish date - how’s that?
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Great!
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We went for a tasting at Wappo hill a few moths ago. The one wine from the upcoming release that Ryan poured for us was the Tempest. We really enjoyed it and though I didn’t take any notes, I will definitely be purchasing some, without any reservations regarding the vintage.
Interesting news. A trusted source said they stopped showing barrel samples. 
@LisaPB are you able to give some impressions of the Realm tasting that you mentioned that you did last week?
@LisaPB I would love to hear your impressions as well. We all know the challenges of the vintage & I am curious how that is translating to the bottle.
Thanks!!
She hasn’t published them yet.
I’m currently writing the 2022 Realm article and reviews to publish on Thursday, but I’m happy to give a preview. The two major choices as the early September heatwave approached were stark: 1) Pick whatever was ripe or close to ripe before and during the heatwave, or 2) Ride the heatwave out with whatever irrigation, shade cloth, and mister strategies you had. Knowing this, I expect to see some under-ripe 2022 Napa Cabernet expressions on one end of the spectrum and some desiccated-fruit and VA-infused train wrecks at the other. This said, Realm did a really great job of toning down the possible deleterious impacts of both major harvest choices. The Tempest, which is mostly Merlot, is a really lovely surprise. Merlot has a broader ripening spectrum than Cabernet and very little tolerance for extreme heat, so most, including Realm, brought their Merlots in before the heatwave. I love this 2022 brighter, fresher Tempest (maybe even prefer it?). The other big, pleasant surprise is Dr. Crane. Benoit chose to harvest this before the heat, which was a brave move. I find him to be one of Dr. Crane’s most skilled crafters, and he really pulled this 2022 off. It’s a more elegant, shimmery style—so counterintuitive to the vintage—and similar in style to what Sam Kaplan does with Dr. Crane for Memento Mori. Houyi had to be picked through the heatwave. It was scorching hot up on Pritchard Hill. This vineyard needed a lot of selection (nearly 30% of the fruit was discarded). It’s an excellent wine, for sure, but not my favorite. To Kalon came in not long after the heatwave. Andy Beckstoffer’s crew did an amazing job getting this vineyard through the heatwave. I tasted Tor’s 2022 To Kalons the day after Realm, and they were equally impressive. Farella Vineyard (Coombsville) and the Stags Leap vineyards (Moonracer and Hartwell XX) weren’t ready when the heat hit and had to ride it out. Again, there was a lot of selection here, but the wines are not that far off 2021 in terms of quality and fruit style. The big difference is the structures. 2021 is a more structured vintage—more tannins and riper tannins, especially—and the 2021 wines will be longer lived than their 2022 counterparts. Finally, The Bard and Absurd are both delicious uber-blends that really don’t miss a beat.
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Thanks for the notes. I can see where you might feel this would be the case, but with ‘modern winemaking techniques’, issues like high VA are taken care of easily and won’t show in finished wines.
Dessicated fruit leading to certain flavor profiles are different, but with Bordeaux varieties that usually see lots of new oak, these can be ‘masked’ pretty well too.
Cheers
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True! And don’t forget back-blending with some 2023… 
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Thanks Sharing Lisa! Really appreciate the detailed impressions & look forward to reading the whole 2022 review.
Cheers!
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@LisaPB, do you taste the wines with the winery present or on your own away from them? Just curious. I know different reviewers take different approaches on this, and some do both . . .
And if you do taste with a winemaking team or winery owner, how do you not this affect your impressions of the wines?
Thanks for your honest opinions here.
Cheers!
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It’s amazing how professionals of all sorts come together here, including the wine critics we have grown to trust. Thanks for the notes. Already purchased before, but it helps cement what I think about Realm.
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Hi Larry - I do both. If I only reviewed wines, I would happily taste everything by myself—it’s more time-efficient. However, I also write vintage reports and articles; to do so, I need to interview winemakers. I mainly choose to taste with winemakers who freely share technical details and who I believe are honest.
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