Winemaker Notes
The Absurd stems from a simple yet fantastically complex proposition: it is the best wine Realm Cellars produces. The Absurd could be one varietal, it could be five. It could come from one vineyard lot, it could come from a dozen. Each time the winery makes The Absurd they start with a blank canvas. The sole guideline is their palate. The single aim is the best Napa Valley wine of the vintage.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A barrel selection, Realm's 2022 The Absurd boasts compelling aromas of black cherries and red raspberries. It exhibits unusual brightness and lift, while still being full-bodied and richly textured. Sure, it's slightly open-knit, but it's intense, vibrant and characterful, with delicate shadings of violets, stone fruit and spice on the lingering finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
As always, the blend of the 2022 The Absurd isn't released, but it's nevertheless a selection of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon from all the sites this team works with. It's in the running for the wine of the vintage and has a deep, saturated purple hue as well as brilliant aromatics of darker currants, plums, smoke tobacco, violets, and incense, and it picks up a lively sense of minerality with time in the glass. Full-bodied, nicely concentrated, with ample mid-palate depth and ripe tannins, it's a rock solid, sure bet of a 2022 that will evolve gracefully for two decades.
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James Suckling
A vibrant, well-balanced, energized Bordeaux-style blend that feels fresh and tastes lively and elegant. Firm but polished tannins embrace charming red fruit, minerals, ripe black fruit and dark chocolate. Really nicely structured, linear and bracing to counter the ripeness and breadth. Iron, flint, graphite, cocoa and raspberries.
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Decanter
This is their secret weapon—while the blend remains undisclosed, it consistently emerges as the most hedonistic wine of the vintage, driven by a punchy barrel selection. A vibrant saline-spicy acid tension resonates throughout, leading to a long, dry finish supporting dark berry fruit and savoury spice layers. Bay laurel weaves through, framed by suave, plump tannins with plenty of grip and mineral tension.
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Vinous
The 2022 The Absurd is a polished, elegant wine from Realm. Silky tannins and super-ripe red-toned fruit are legacies of this highly unusual blend. This is one of the more flamboyant wines in the range. As such, it will drink well right out of the gate. The Absurd remains a selection of the best barrels in the cellar.
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.