Community Tasting Note
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msuwine wrote: 100 points
August 16, 2020 - I know this wine invites a certain adjective, but the word I kept thinking of tonight was "sublime," defined as something "of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe." This is such a wine. The first Absurd since 2005 (a great wine in its own right), the 2012 is the best Benoit Touquette wine I have ever tasted.
Dark purple in color, medium in the glass, and full in the mouth, the wine offers incredible aromas of blackberry, fresh leather, freshly ground espresso, peppercorn, and dried lavender. I know aroma is the better part of taste, and to smell this wine is almost as good as to taste it... almost. The flavors are symphonic, with intense but precise notes of blueberry, mulberry, cocoa bean, dried herbs, and graphite, with a finish that is dusty, layered, grainy, and lifted - a finish that you never want to end. Blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot. 14.6% alcohol. Drink in next few years.
A three-digit score demands explanation, and it can't just be a subjective one (e.g., "I feel this wine is the best thing ever, so much that I equated fermented grape juice with Platonic perfection!"). At the risk of sounding like a TED Talk, three things make this wine stand out, above and beyond:
(1) The depth of fruit is incredible. It is ripe, layered, and concentrated, but not extracted or concocted. I've had a lot of 2012s over the past year - and a lot of Napa wines over the years - and I'll say that it is very, very, very hard for a wine to deliver fruit this deep and pure and real.
(2) The integration of the wine is complete. Maybe this will get better, but it has an undeniable harmony right now: fruit, tannin, acidity, everything working together beautifully (something that is not always the case for a wine this big at this age - including, cough, the 2012 Bard).
(3) This wine is unique. I know blends aren't supposed to be cool, but that's usually because something good is mixed with something mediocre. Here, it is all great: this wine has the depth of a Crane, the earthiness of an LPV, and the elegance of a BTK. I suspect the vineyard sources are fantastic (in a remarkable vintage, no less), but the sum is still greater than the parts.
In a word: sublime. Over six years and 1,804 tasting notes, this is my fourth 100-point wine. Only one other word comes to mind, one worth repeating: Bravo, bravo!6 people found this helpful 5,033 views
7 Comments
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seijaro commented:
8/16/20, 6:54 PM - Wow, I have some and after your great review I can't wait to try it. Did you decant and air it?
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msuwine commented:
8/16/20, 7:09 PM - This really hit its stride after two hours of air, but it was pretty ridiculously good from the get-go. I think most of Benoit's wines don't need too much air (especially the 2012 and even the 2013), but this needed a little more time. I'll look forward to hearing what you think!
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RayT commented:
8/16/20, 10:15 PM - NIce tasting note. Makes me sad that I don't have any!
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seijaro commented:
8/17/20, 7:13 PM - It's absurdly hard to get an allocation and absurdly expensive :(
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RayT commented:
8/18/20, 12:57 PM - Yes and that is why I have none! I try not to go over $300 a bottle but I notice every year my limit creeps up about $50 so I may get there!
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gteran76 commented:
8/23/22, 10:21 AM - I thought that the whole point of “The Absurd” was the crazy high content of Petir Verdot, I guess I was wrong.
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jcosindc commented:
5/26/23, 10:25 AM - Wonderful note about the wine. I gave this bottle away to my brother as a wedding gift in 2019. We enjoyed it at the wedding reception. Your comments are spot on target.
And...luckily, I have 2 more bottles to sample for myself.