What happens when an artist suspends reality in pursuit of something beyond…something divine within the craft? That’s the proposition behind The Absurd, the wine that arguably put Realm Cellars on the map. As we have said elsewhere, The Absurd stems from a simple yet fantastically complex proposition: it is the best wine Realm Cellars produces. And each time we make this wine, we start with a blank canvas. There are no rules as to vineyard sourcing, varietal blend, or production size. Our sole guide is our palate.
When we sat down on a cool day in early June 2023 for a vertical tasting of every vintage of The Absurd from 2012-2021, it was an opportunity to take stock of the progress over a decade. We were preparing for our 2023 Summer Release, which included the current release of The Absurd from the 2021 vintage, as well as eight prior vintages. As with our Library Release in Spring 2023, we released these older vintages to offset our lack of 2020 wines, and also as a way to offer our members something truly inspiring, a retrospective of this singular wine over the past decade.
Before tasting, Scott reminded us that first and foremost The Absurd is a “winemaker’s wine.” It is a wine less about place and more about personality.
Scott: “Unlike our single vineyard wines, The Absurd is about selecting the best barrels or the best fractions of barrels. It’s about blending over viticulture. It is based purely on the palate impression of the wine. This is Benoit’s wine.”
Because we have no preconceived notions of what The Absurd should be or where it should come from, the production volume varies, sometimes dramatically, as we tease out the finest lots of the vintage. That may be a few hundred bottles; it may be a few thousand. In 2020, it was none at all.
Our tasting began with 2012 The Absurd, a wine created when Realm 2.0 was just getting off the ground. At the time, we were scrappy, a virtual brand that was nearly bankrupt; we had a lot to prove to the world – and to ourselves.
Benoit knew this as much as anyone: “I kept thinking we needed to do something crazy, explorative and out of the norm. I isolated the most glorious barrels of the vintage. We tasted and blended with Michel (Rolland) and came up with a wine we thought represented this new chapter at Realm."
It worked. In late 2014 Robert M. Parker, Jr. of Wine Advocate gave 2012 The Absurd 100 points, calling it a “tour de force” and Realm’s “finest achievement to date.” Of course, we didn’t have that score when we created 2013 The Absurd, but we thought – we knew – we were onto something.
Benoit: “We were always trying to progress no matter the situation or vintage. Always asking ourselves what we could do better, how we could become more precise and make a more layered, complex wine. We still do.”
The Absurd vertical reflected this progression unequivocally. 2012 The Absurd is massive, a decadent wine that was intended to – and did – make a statement. In 2013 and 2014, we see more refinement, partly due to vintage differences but also because we had more fruit sources available to us and were gaining more control and confidence. 2015 stands apart, a warm “solar” vintage that nevertheless produced a juicy, extroverted wine.
Then, with 2016 The Absurd, we see a shift. Moving to our own winery in the Stags Leap District was a game changer, and the increased control over our space, equipment, and winemaking practices from fermentation to bottling is evident. For the first time, we were also able to introduce fruit from Moonracer toThe Absurd, and the addition of Stags Leap District fruit added more depth, texture, and pure pleasure to the wine.
The 2017 was a great wine albeit an anomaly due to the fire that harvest. Still, with most of our fruit picked ahead of the fire, we knew we had excellent barrel lots that would make The Absurd just as good as its predecessors. We made less of it that year, but it stands tall in the lineup, showcasing a surprising amount of freshness.
Finally, the majestic 2018, 2019 and 2021 vintages, each showing similar progressions in refinement and precision as even more fruit sources, including estate fruit, become available and we get comfortable in our own winemaking facility. These wines reflect their vintages, but the signature of The Absurd and of Realm is loud and clear.
Scott: “It may not be as much about place, but the wine is certainly distinct... I would argue The Absurd captures a unique spirit within the world of wine, with its ripeness, richness, elegance, sunshine, structure and chiseled nuances of flavor.”
Benoit: “There are few wines in life that move you, that produce emotion. We want The Absurd to be that wine for people, the one that is just a little magical.”
As a wine that embodies Realm’s goal of progressing with every vintage, The Absurd epitomizes our mantra: the best is yet to come.
Note: If you are a follower of Realm and The Absurd, you know that we don’t usually provide a “Wine Profile” in our release notes. For this library release, however, we provided Wine Profiles to give members a sense of how the wines are evolving and whether, in our personal view, they should be enjoyed sooner or held for further aging.
