Rhys
About Rhys
Perched almost entirely on the steep Santa Cruz Mountains, Rhys Vineyards has long been something of an insiders’ secret. Owner Kevin Harvey has been a champion of the Burgundian terroir-focused approach to viticulture in the region, crafting an extensive range of single-vineyard and single-plot cuvées, most of which we are delighted to present below.
Having made wine casually since 1995, Rhys itself was founded in 2001 to almost immediate critical acclaim with a careful selection of individual plots on the mountainside and very high-density plantings. Since the very beginning, Harvey’s focus has been Pinot Noir, but Chardonnay is a close second love and his passion for these varietals has garnered ardent praise from many, including one of the world’s most influential Burgundy-focused critics, Allen Meadows (Burghound).
“Owner Kevin Harvey and winemaker Jeff Brinkman have once again created some genuinely remarkable wines and in particular the Swan Terrance is nothing short of brilliant! Readers should be aware that the Rhys wines are clearly fashioned in a built-to-age style and thus are most assuredly not intended to show their best young. Thus I would suggest that if you're going to buy them do so with the intent to allow for at least a few years of bottle age”
Allen Meadows (Burghound)
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Wine Advocate (96+)
The 2019 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard trades places with its Horseshoe neighbor in this vintage, beginning with a reticent, dark-fruited nose of fresh herbs, black tea, black pepper and allspice that steadily gains momentum. It is superbly elegant and restrained on the palate, with a pleasing undercurrent of sumptuous dark fruits and finessed but persistent tannins. The length and persistence of the finish are spectacular and, in this vintage, is what narrowly edges out the Horseshoe bottling. I find it endlessly fascinating to compare the two as they are consistently neck-in-neck and impressive shapeshifters in the glass.د.إ3,160.00