Realm Upcoming Release

Great letter from the team at Realm! Love the openness and look forward to the releases!

We are grateful you are part of the Realm journey!

As you know, we did not bottle any red wines from 2020 due to smoke taint. Although we will never be able to replace those wines, we look forward to sharing new offerings and experiences with you over the next several months. Resilience is simply part of who we are…we call it The Realm Way.

Our upcoming 2022 Fall Release provides members with a unique opportunity to acquire three new wines from the 2018 and 2019 vintages - some of which will never be offered again. Hartwell XX, our third Estate wine, celebrates our evolution while honoring an important legacy. The Bard Blair Edition and Levensohn, both limited-edition single vineyard wines, have their own special stories to tell.


Visit your My Realm dashboard to learn more about our new wines.

VISIT MY REALM

Our Summer Release begins on July 2 and will feature 2019 The Absurd. Due to the very limited nature of this wine, our Summer Release is by invitation only. Following the Fall Release, we are preparing for our first-ever Library Drop, which will include a selection of library vintages and large formats. Lastly, we are exploring the possibility of creating a Futures Release for some of the 2021 wines.

With each of these new releases, offerings and drops, we are attempting to share the wines as broadly and fairly as possible while taking into consideration tenure and purchase history. The reality of a lost vintage means allocations will be tight for the next few years so please bear with us!

As we continue to evolve, our ongoing pledge to you is that the wines from Realm will always reflect our relentless pursuit of perfection. The best is yet to come.


Sincerely,
The Team at Realm Cellars

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Curious how this Bard is different then the regular Bard. Guess we will find out more later.

I am looking forward to (hopefully) adding some of that Levensohn to my cellar- the wines there from '14 through '16 were amazing…

Scott- if you’re seeing this, PRETTY PLEASE :slight_smile:

It comes solely from Blair vineyard, which makes it similar to some earlier iterations of the Bard, which had come primarily from that vineyard. That’s the primary difference.

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its also 100% cabernet vs the regular bard blend

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Def looking forward to Hartwell and Levensohn. Unsure which years…both?

18 and 19. Hartwell will be regular release in the future but Levenshon is only once off.

Is anyone biting on the Absurd? Release is tomorrow, not sure what price (but surely will be Absurd)

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It’s a fun bottle. $575 last year … guessing $625? Magnums last year $1275… this year guessing $1350?

Hi everyone! At the risk of spoiling the surprise (good or bad), I’m sharing some notes on today’s release of The Absurd. Price is $650 per 750mL and $1,500 per 1.5L. The wines will once again ship stateside via UPS Summer Solutions which means overnight delivery with insulation and cold gel packs. I understand some eye-rolling and hand-wringing over the price. $650 is a lot for any bottle of wine, especially with the threat of a recession looming. Whatever you may think of The Absurd, I hope most people will consider Realm as a portfolio of wines…and some of these wines, notably The Bard, punch well above their weight.

2019 The Absurd may be the capstone wine in the capstone vintage of the 2010’s for us. Quite frankly, I believe it could be the best wine we’ve made yet. Looking back, there are a few others that stand out to me – 13 Dr. Crane, 18 Moonracer, 19 Hartwell XX, 16 The Absurd. But the 2019 rendition of this wine may simply be the most complete and complex of them all.

Volume is similar to 2018 so allocations should be similar to a purchase from last year. We are able to invite a few new folks into this release who expressed interest in being included last year (we are adding more functionality to our website for feedback like this). The ability to wish for more quantity has been tailored to manage expectations. There’s no point letting someone wish for 6 magnums if there’s zero chance we could grant it. This summer marks the second time we’ve separated The Absurd into its own release (distinct from spring and fall releases) and we like the clarity of it. There’s simply not enough of this wine to share with the entire list, we understand the price is ambitious, the wine itself is different from the others…so we opted for this separate approach. Unclear at the moment what we will do next summer in the absence of a 2020 vintage – perhaps a small library offering/drop of what little Absurd stock we have remaining in the cellar.

I’ll close once again with a simple thank you – for your support and for your feedback. I love the engagement with our members and with this forum. Email me anytime at sbecker@realmcellars.com or call the winery 707-224-1910. Happy 4th of July to everyone…I hope you all plan to drink something great with friends and family this weekend!

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Yes, we plan to release both 18 and 19 vintages of Levensohn Vineyard and Hartwell XX this fall. We farmed the Levensohn Vineyard from 2017 through 2020 but sadly were only able to produce wine in two of the four vintages. The vineyard was sold after the 2020 vintage. We learned a lot farming Levensohn - Mother Nature is humbling and some relationships or situations are fleeting. This is partly why I have such conviction around owning the land. With Hartwell XX, we are honored to continue building on what Bob Hartwell started when he first planted the top of Wappo Hill using cuttings from Grace. Lots more to share on this vineyard in the years to come.

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Hi Scott, thx for your info! I checked my allocation. I’m able to wish for one Mag and I really want to add that into my collection. What’s the chance of being granted with one mag?

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Just received my bottle of Absurd today- shout out to Realm for the excellence of its packaging as my bottle was cool/cold to the touch in 85+ degree weather.

T-minus…LFG!

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O man my Absurd just came. This will hurt. Can’t wait for Scott’s write up. I hopeThe Bard spin-off keeps the price point!

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@Phil_M @Jeff_L1 how long did you have to participate on the allocations before you were eligible to purchase the highly allocated Absurd and Dr. Crane?

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@T_Roy I want to say I’ve participated in 5 or 6 offerings so roughly 3 years but I think Scott has said a few times on this board that time isn’t the only factor. Maybe it’s how much you spend as well? Not sure.

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I have been a buyer since 2013 and was offered the 2010 Dr. Crane and I believe all vintages of The Absurd released since 2013…
As Jeff noted, longevity is not the only factor.

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Been on the list since spring of 2020 and got allocated Dr. Crane last offer.