After three flights covering (#1) Balanced & Bordeaux-esque, (#2) Traditional Leaner Napa, and (#3) Modern & Plush styles, we brought back the top two finishers from each and ran a grand finale blind tasting with all six wines head to head. We tried to keep the years the same but again availability was a bit of a challenge. This flight was single blind (all others were double blind except for me hosting). Posting group tasting notes below, where it finished in the flight, and some take-aways v. the original tasting from the previous flight.
2021 Frog's Leap – astringently dry, sharp dusty tannins, big green pepper, raspberry, a bit thin, hint of savory, missing some acid [6th – the original winner of Flight #2 had a rough night. One of the bigger reversals of the series. It read as "complex and structured" alongside a flight of lean wines but seemed thin and sharp next to the Finale lineup. By far the last place.]
2022 Stag's Leap Artemis – complex, firm and tight tannin, good acid, just sweet enough, ready to drink [1st – maintained its 1st place from Flight #1. Consistent across both tastings. Not super detailed tasting notes as you see, but it was just well liked. It went from 33% first-place votes to 56% in the Finale.]
2022 Caymus – big red fruit, syrupy sweet, flat, has some tannin and alcohol to balance but still too rich and sweet [5th – dropped hard from its previous win. The group liked it against other soft, plush wines from Flight #3 but the sweetness and flatness stood out more against structured wines.]
2021 Realm The Bard – earthy and savory with a complex sweetness, mouth-coating, pleasantly complex, lower acid, OK tannin [3rd – one of the most consistent wines of the series. Nearly identical scores both times, held its ground even against a tougher Finale flight v. Flight #3]
2021 Round Pond – big plum notes, lower tannin but not flat, low acid, simple classic profile, full but pleasing, little harsh at times? [4th – solid and inoffensive, similar story to its original flight placing]
2022 Chappellet – aroma gives impression of high tannin and tight fruit, very dry, complex but closed, brambly black fruit [2nd – actually improved on its original Flight #2 placing, showing more complexity in the finale even if it felt closed. The one with the most upside to further aging.]
My personal top three: 1st – Realm The Bard, 2nd – Stag's Leap Artemis, 3rd – Chappellet.
by der_radfahrer
4 Comments
Wild how context completely shifted the rankings – Frog’s Leap going from winner to dead last is brutal but makes total sense when you put it up against bigger, more structured wines. The Bard staying consistent through both flights shows some serious character, that earthy complexity probably plays well no matter what it’s sitting next to
The other way to do it and the way we used to do it was to make sure everyone had a glass for each wine and then they could just taste every wine against every other wine. We would have 10 or 12 people and 10 or 12 wines, all same vintage.
This is awesome, thanks for doing and thanks for writing up. This is the some of my favorite type of content from this sub.
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