I was reviewing Galloni’s barrel retasting notes from October (available below), and noticed that he reviewed two wines that I haven’t seen available from Rhys in the last few years, or ever: Alpine Hillside and Horseshoe Hillside. I was wondering if anyone around here (or perhaps someone from Rhys) might be able to give us the low-down on these wines. Will they be available just for 2013? What motivated these bottlings? And how much will be available (i.e. similar quantity to Swan Terrace, or some other wine?)?
Alpine Hillside has been around for awhile I don’t recall when it was last bottled separate from the Alpine. I read Antonio’s reviews and somehow missed the Horseshoe Hillside, that’s exciting! I’m pretty sure this is a first. I can’t wait to try the new porcupine too.
Joseph,
For many years we have wanted to make “Hillside” (or essentially Reserve) bottlings from Alpine and Horseshoe vineyards but for several reasons we did not. In order to bottle Alpine or Horseshoe Hillside we are waiting for:
A year with exceptional quality
A Block selection that really stands out and makes a wine significantly better than the vineyard designate (often difficult)
Enough production that these barrels would be otherwise essentially lost in the larger vineyard designate bottling
We will not bottle the Hillsides in every year and in fact it’s not clear how often we will but it will be something like a declared vintage in Champagne (in the old days!). 2012 came quite close but failed on point 2 above. The best blocks were just not significantly better. In 2013 we felt that we finally had all of these criteria met for both vineyards. The 2013 Hillside bottlings are similar in size to Swan Terrace and Skyline but with the Hillsides we also bottle a good portion of the wine in magnum. The Hillside wines also have a different label (Black with Gold lettering). We think they represent the ultimate expression of Alpine and Horseshoe Pinot.
I was considering dropping off the list after the Spring (just due to storage limitations and the ever growing portion of my cellar that Rhys is making up while I let them age) but the prospect of a Horseshoe Hillside is making me reconsider.
In the other thread you talked about the 25 new acres of plantings at Bearwallow. Given that your vineyard neighbors on either side both make a ‘hillside’ and a ‘ridgetop’ wine from their vineyards are these new plantings positioning you to do the same in the future?
Man oh man, that is a sexy bottle. Kevin and Jeff, thanks for the great responses. I echo some of the other comments: can’t wait to get my hands on a bottle or two, credit card willing.
These will be part of the regular allocations at sometime this year? And, not to put too fine a point on it, but if one is typically allocated some amount of Swan or Skyline, one is likely to also get allocated a Hillside?
Wow… i remember 2007 there was a hillside for alpine as well.
i was curious why 2012 didn’t have one… and that explains it… it was all good, but not one block that was ‘stand out’…
I guess no throw back pricing on the hillsides huh?