I received some exceptional news yesterday and decided to be finished with Sober September. Opened a 2006 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart to start the evening and it didn’t disappoint.
However, with the recent Wine Spies controversy for our friends at Realm, I decided to truly celebrate with a 2023 Realm Hartwell XX. I hadn’t had the opportunity to try the ‘23 and it seemed like a great time to pop it in support for Scott and Team.
Double decanted for approximately 4 hours then decanted for about an hour. A elegant and beautiful wine, with a strong clove and spice nose. Tasting revealed a wonderful all spice note as well black fruit and currant heavy notes. Supple and extremely well balanced with fruit, alcohol and tannin in all the right places. It evolved over another hour in glass, shedding the boldness and tannin into a luxurious treat.
My first experience with Realm was at Shanahan’s Steakhouse in Denver almost 5 years ago. As we were walking past the wine room, which was made of glass, I saw the label for “The Bard” and noticed it was Shakespeare. I had to ask the Somm which bottle it was and when he mentioned Realm - I remembered a few recommendations to try it. We drank it with steaks and I joined Realm as we exited the restaurant. I actually asked a friend to sign up so i could get more wine from the initial allocation they offer when you join…
Amanda and I were married in 2013 in Napa and traveled back for our 10 year anniversary in 2023. I had just learned that Scott had purchased the old Hartwell Estate from Bob (which we had been members of) and emailed Scott and asked if it was at all possible to host us at that property (we had 12 in total) because it was a special place for my wife and I. Unfortunately, Realm had not obtained occupancy permits at the time and it was too much of a risk to have non-employees at the just finished facility. Scott was overly apologetic about not being about to host us, and asked where we would be dining while in Napa - He then offered to drop off “something special” for us at Bottega for our meal.
It’s worth keeping in mind that this was 2nd week of October 2023, basically mid harvest. Clearly not the most convenient time for wineries to be distracted.
We checked in for dinner and began with some wines when about 20 minutes in, when Scott showed up. He apologized for being insanely tired as they had been harvesting at night and presented the table with a magnum of “the Phoenix”. He stayed for about 20 minutes chatting and talking about Realm and their wines and began to depart. I asked if we could open “the Phoenix” now to enjoy during dinner and he was very surprised.
He said, “you’re going to open it now?” To which I replied, “Absolutely!”. He took off his blazer and said, “well if you’re going to open it now, I’m staying to hang for a while - I don’t get to have this very often!”.
He stayed for at least an hour and a half, drinking with us and regaling us with all kinds of stories about Napa - including buying Bob’s property (which is actually hilarious).
Realm had me as a customer based purely on their wines. Scott turned me into a friend and will have a supporter for life.
