January 15, 2024 - Decanted for 2 hours. Paired wonderfully with dry aged ribeye. Smooth with a long finish, indeed 2011 was a good vintage for those who knew what to do. This wine should drink well for many more years.
January 5, 2024 - Terrific wine despite the tough vintage.
December 9, 2023 - Brought this to Genevieve's Kitchen, great BYO in Doylestown PA. In my cellar from release, good excuse to open this. Had this with a short rib bolognese. Decanted and rebottled to take to the restaurant, was open about 75 minutes prior to drinking, drank over an hour.
Color was a dark brick/garnet, minor separation. Nose of black currants, baking spice. Bright red fruits, cherry, red currant, fig. The red fruit has a bit of sweetness, candied cherry quality on the mid palate. Picking up fig and some balsamic. Classic Dr Crane red fruit profile. Tannins resolved and sweetened. Full/medium body (by Napa standards), long finish.
I did not afford this as long a decant as other tasters - will look to do so for future bottles. The decant here is a must to get it to show, this was open and expressive after an hour but did continue to evolve over the dinner. The 2011 vintage was much maligned at release but the bottles in my cellar have been ok...I would not have expected such a great showing from this wine in terms of depth and expression given a (misplaced) bias against the vintage.
Great showing on this evening, surprise to the upside. Worth drinking now if you have these, this bottle has another 5-7 years in it
July 19, 2023 - 2 hour decant. Drinking beautifully.
December 16, 2021 - My first Realm Dr. Crane (and the first Realm vintage that Benoit oversaw).
Gave this around two hours of air. After tasting on opening it was a tad rough and the air really helped round off the edges. Served slightly chilled after 30 mins of fridg time...for me, chilling was essential.
The color indicates its' age as it is starting to fade to brick-ish ever so slightly.
On the palate it was mellow, as opposed to bright, with dark fruit flavors and a tobacco or smokey essence. Still retains a fascinating subtle intensity (a contradiction?) and a touch of sweetness with a lush, mid-weight feel.
After days on nitrogen, the final glass was again very good but, in the end, it just lacks a bit of oomph that I get from most Realm wines, perhaps due to its' age and/or the vintage.
But that said, this was still another great Realm wine that was most satisfying. Looking forward to the day I get an allocation for the recent vintages to compare and contrast.
If you have this vintage of the Crane, I'd suggest drinking sooner than later if you prefer more fruit. If you prefer them super smooth with less fruit, no worries as this will hold together for a few more years at least.
September 12, 2021 - Bottle was absolutely singing when consumed over 2 days, and yet another reminder what great producers can do in a challenging vintage. Dark fruits abound and tannins fully resolved, with day 1 coming across a bit hotter than day 2, which felt much more integrated with some nice minerality coming through. Drink with a long decant or hold, easily another 5 years to go. Day 2 > Day 1
June 13, 2020 - Opened and slow ox'd for 6 hours before we started drinking it. We had already consumed a 2013 Realm Farella and a 2009 Terra Valentine so I am taking a little bit of leniency in my memory of the flavors. Dark fruit on the nose with a hint of chocolate. The palate dark berries, dark plums, some fig, tobacco, a touch of chocolate and a hint of spice on the finish. The finish is long and full. My good friend and co drinker Michael only gave it a 92 which I felt was very stingy. By the way it is not that we don't care about of wives opinions but they too busy drinking them to ever consider sitting back and rating them.
May 1, 2020 - Rich dark fruit with currant, plum and some chocolate and tobacco notes leading to a long lingering finish
March 2, 2020 - Very nice arealm wine but way too young. Needs another 3-4 years. Lots of blue fruit. Was tight for a long time but slowly started to open. Moderate finish.
February 15, 2020 - Really nice wine. Dark purple fruit and brooding spice that lingers with an almost unctuous quality. Decanting really needed more than hour, so I’m wondering how six CT pundits could say this window closes in 2022? How young do you guys like to drink your wine?