Hey hey! Here we go again – I’ve got one more bottle after this in my stash of Harry & David Vineyards wine. I’m trying to get them all out to you before the holidays. I think I’m going to reach my goal! In this edition, I’m tackling there Royal Crest Red Blend. It’s a Bordeaux blend, but they don’t seem to tell us what’s in there. That’s ok – I think we’ll be able to tell. So, let’s carry on with this review of this 2020 Red Blend.
Overview
I like to make sure I include a quick synopsis at the top of each of my reviews, simply so that people who don’t have the attention span to read the entire entry can get to the important things (you know who you are:)). So, here it is. And spoiler alert, I always write this part last, based upon the detail. The details of the reviews are much more important, including in this red blend review.
- Bouquet has subtle black fruits, vanilla, and black pepper when first corked, but cedar comes through strong after opened for a bit.
- Flavor on the tongue is savory, with wild mushroom and sun dried tomatoes. It’s a bit unbalanced with not enough fruit or structure to hold it together.
- Overall, not my favorite wine. It’s drinkable, but rather unbalanced. After letting it sit for a full day, the cedar flavors open up and overpower everything else.
The Details of this Red Blend Review
I opened this an hour ago to let it open up a bit. When first opened, the bouquet was certainly a little absent, with mostly very tart black fruit coming through. After the hour, there is a bit more complexity on the nose. The black fruit is still there, with notes of blackberry and dark plums. Secondary notes of vanilla with hints of black pepper come through. The bottle says cedar, but I don’t get that yet. However, I wonder if it will start to come through after a couple of hours similar to the Merlot I reviewed the other day.
Let me take a sip…interesting. There is a lot of acidity here, similar to the Merlot of the same vintage. The flavor profile contains a bit more savoriness than expected, with sun dried tomatoes with mushrooms coming through. The fruit is almost non-existent, and the acidity is almost overpowering. There’s not a lot of tannin to help with the finish, and it goes away quickly. I want to let this sit for an hour or two to see how this develops. My initial thought is that it’s not very balanced – it’s definitely Merlot dominant, and I expected a bit more tannin from Cabernet Sauvignon to help with the finish, but it’s not there. Let’s see where this takes me after it sits for awhile.
Next Day
OK – I didn’t get back to this wine the same night. Instead, I let it sit overnight. Why? Well, I ended up really enjoying another bottle of wine, and didn’t want to backtrack. In any case, I opened it back up the following day, and I was completely overtaken by the cedar. Similar to the merlot, the cedar was overpowering. In a way that wasn’t good for me. Unless you really enjoy cedar and wood, I would not recommend letting this wine aerate this long. The rest of the flavors are still there after a day, but the cedar is so overpowering it’s really hard to not be taken aback with each sip.
I guess the recommendation is to let it sit a few hours, but not overnight, unless you really enjoy the cedar flavor. Overall, I don’t really love this wine. As stated earlier, there’s not much fruit, and the finish kind of dies as there really isn’t enough tannin to balance the acidity.
Other Harry & David Reviews of This Red Blend
As always, I like to give you the ability to look for other reviews as it relates to this wine. And as usual, the best place for other reviews is Vivino. It looks like others are also not a huge fan of this wine, which is not a surprise to me in any way.
Want to Buy a Bottle For Yourself?
Similar to other Harry & David offerings, you really have to buy this as part of a set. I’m not completely sure why they don’t offer these as standalone, other than that they don’t feel like they can sell these on their own. In any case, it looks like you can buy this offering as part of a 3 bottle red set (along with the Cabernet & Pinot Noir). I reviewed the Pinot Noir not too long ago, so check out my review! You can also get this as part of a Charcuterie Board with Wine Duo, which includes this and a Sauvignon Blanc.
Other Masshole Harry & David Vineyard Reviews
As always, here are some other reviews of wines from Harry & David. While this wine is not my favorite, others have fared more favorably with my palate.
