Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Tempest is Realm's homage to Right Bank Bordeaux, as it is a blend of 86% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Sauvignon. Like Shakespeare's famous play, this is meant to be an in-your-face, boisterous, expressive and flamboyant wine. Most of the grapes tend to come from great vineyards such as Dr. Crane and others. The wine is lush and ripe, with a stunning nose of coffee beans, chocolate, black cherries, and blackberries. It is deep, heady, and enormously appealing in its opulence and sexiness.
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Wine Spectator
Combines richness with a core of structure, offering aromas of red currant and tomato leaf and layered flavors of cherry, black olive and spice. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.