Community Tasting Note

• Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 95 points

  July 19, 2019 - Stewart NOMAD Tasting (Yountville): Fresh off a blind 2016 Dr Crane tasting where this came in 8 out of 9, it was interesting to have it again without the crazy relative comparison. It certainly fared better for me. Nose of cherries, violets, loamy earth and wet stone. The overall freshest of the 16 Nomad lineup, this hits the palate with a terrific flavor profile of pure rich blue fruit with well integrated tannins and a nice spine holding it all together. Great mineral driven elements leading to good complexity and overall multi-dimensional character. Vibrant and fairly long finish.

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2 Comments

• msuwine commented:

  7/22/19, 9:36 PM - Hi Cristal - Great notes, as always. I tasted through the 2016 lineup last fall, and I remember the Crane being my clear favorite.
  
  That said, I'm interested to hear more about your take on how this fared in this tasting of Stewart wines as compared to your tasting of the showcase Crane producers. Of course, we can't all drink Realm and Memento every night, and the Stewart is better priced than most Crane wines (aside from the Myriads, I guess).
  
  So, do you keep buying the Stewart Crane? I'm curious what, if anything, strikes you as unique about Guthrie's approach, especially after tasting through the benchmark producers. I know each wine is unique(-ish), but I also know we can't buy everything. Thanks again for the great notes!

• Cristal2000 commented:

  7/22/19, 10:04 PM - Hi MSU - As Dr Crane wines go, this is definitely in the lower tier as shown by the blind tasting results of a couple months ago. That being said, this is DR CRANE we are talking about, so even the lower tier is very good. If you're lucky enough to have access to everything, I am not sure this merits buying regularly for the price advantage unless you are getting it for $150 - and of course, that means you are in the club buying the entire portfolio of NOMAD wines, which isn't something I would be interested in myself. If you are after something a bit redder, that shows more acidity and a bit less of the full bodied opulent concentration, than perhaps this fits the bill quite nicely.
  
  Now on this trip I also had the 2016 A Bulgheroni Dr Crane for the first time, and I think that would fall into the top tier of Dr Crane wines for the vintage. Wish we had it for the blind tasting as I believe it would have fared quite well. Of course, it is $250/bottle, so that's the rub.

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