Impressions from Rhys Offline

A bunch of us got together in San Francisco to check in some Rhys wines and get an impression on where they are today. We tried to follow Kevin’s advice on decanting (or not), but in retrospect I wonder if having decanted them earlier in the afternoon would have helped a bit in a few cases. Here are my own notes:

2008 Chardonnay Alpine - delicious, medium rich, good acidity, some nice notes of umami and saline, touch of honey, fabulous and still very young. A bit more acidity than the 2010 model.

2010 Chardonnay Alpine - similar to the 2008, with a bit less intensity, touch of lemon tartness, touches of minerality, and a slightly honeyed finish. Lovely wine, thought the 2008 was showing a bit better. I took this bottle home and finished the last glass two nights later, showed a slight toast note, but otherwise hadn’t changed much, still drinking nicely.

2006 Pinot Alpine - first impression is fairly high acidity, quite tannic, tough to read, with dark, burly fruit. I think the stems and tannins are still dominating the fruit at this point.

2006 Pinot Swan Terrace - Touch software than the Alpine, more approachable though with a similar overall profile, dark blueberry fruit, still quite backward. Interesting to have tried this, but I’m kind of sorry I opened it now. Won’t touch my remaining bottle for at least a decade.

2007 Pinot Skyline - dark red fruit, spice, medium fine tannins, medium acidity, still very young and needs time but more approachable than the 2006s.

2007 Pinot Horseshoe - touch softer than Skyline, though with plenty of spicy structure, deep red fruit, plenty of acidity.

2007 Pinot Alpine “Hillside” - lush nose, rich, medium dark red fruit, less rustic and backward than the other mountain wines. Could have used a bit more air time, but this is drinking fairly nicely - though I think I’d still keep it under wraps for several more years.

2008 Pinot Horseshoe - very tight, rustic, plenty of acidity, but so coarse and tannic. Impossible to really get much of a read on this, but don’t open one.

2009 Pinot Horseshoe - Sleeping. Some spicy fruit peaks through the tannins, but it’s just not giving much.

2011 Pinot Family Farm - nice spice nose, comparatively fairly rich, bright red fruit, spice, good acidity, the most drinkable of the Pinot bottles tonight.

2013 Pinot Bearwallow - (a nice donation from Kevin to give us an early look). Dark, lush, rich spicy fruit, compared to what we’ve been drinking gives the impression of being riper and definitely more forward.

Conclusions? I think the wines have been getting a little more elegant and friendly in the past few years, though maybe even the delicious-on-release 2012s will go through the apparent backward phase some of these wines were in, time will tell. I won’t be touching any of my pre-2010 wines for quite a while

Thanks for the frank notes Alan. I have been buying the red wines for awhile but have yet to open a bottle that confirms my commitment to the producer. I’m not as convinced as you that time will improve them. The whites I get a better read on.

Just had the 09 Horseshoe Chard that Rhys says “D” which was great bot with only upside potential right now (and, BTW, stored since release in my passive cellar!)

I bought in because of the 08 Alesia which I loved (obviously) on release and has only gotten better and Swan I had (courtesy of a friend but I don’t remember the vintage) last summer was pretty promising but at the age of 64 I think these may outlive me

I’ve had success with a 6-12 hour or even overnight slow-ox with the pinots.

08 skyline I had a while back had kaleidoscopic aromatics after 24+ hrs air. Still very structured on the palate though. First day wasn’t nearly as open.

Might need a decade minimum on some of the older vintages.

Re-reading, I want to clarify that I have a lot of faith in the Rhys vineyards and overall philosophy. The wines over the past few years have been great, this was a look into some of the earlier vintages, where Rhys team were perhaps still fine fine tuning the winemaking, vineyards, and vintage conditions. And in a way, I think what we were drinking that evening is a good sign - not that different from some Burgundies we might have been drinking too early in their lives.

Understood but with Burgundy you generally have a track record to give you faith. Not the case here. The wines may evolve beautifully but all must admit it’s a gamble at this stage. Perhaps a worthwhile gamble for many believers. I’m just not sure I fit in that camp.

I was originally going to react to this with “WTF are you talking about”. But, looking back at my notes objectively, I have to say that I agree with you to some degree. All my notes re: Rhys Pinots are along the lines of “decent material, hoping that more shows in the years to come”. But in general, I have found these to be slow to evolve, in contrast to others that showed well early and later fell off the cliff. So, I’m hoping the “gamble” is well placed. I’m more comfortable with Rhys as a gamble than similarly priced Burgundy, which admittedly I have little experience with.

The second epiphany was “damn, there’s a lot of this stuff in the cellar”. Rhys may be, because of it’s aging profile and my age, a list I fall off of in a couple years.

Im with you John, not a lot of pleasure in the early stages of this winery. Vast majority of tasting notes mention needing more time. Since there is no history beyond the wines being drunk - who really knows?
I do believe a shift in the winemaking style lately was necessary to bring some earlier pleasure to the followers. Amazing how rabid of a following there is for the winery.

Alan, thanks for these notes (and to others, such as Frank, who have posted their experience with similar offlines in the past). I’m in the same situation as John in that I have been buying now for a while but still not completely onboard with the wines.

Or I should say not with the Pinots. The Chards have me convinced already.

I’ve found it very difficult to get a read on these wines as I get the current vintages are so far from being ready. I’ve popped a few knowing I was committing infanticide to try and get a read, and I got very little. I’ve also backfilled a bit, recently acquiring previous vintages from 2007-2010, so I can try and gain a better perspective from that route.

But the notes above lead me to wonder if I’m able to get that perspective in the next year or so based on these purchases, or if it’s best if I hold these longer as well. And that’s compounded by the differences in winemaking that have evolved over the vintages that mean the older ones may not be an apt comparison anyway.

From my exposure to them on this board I have a ton of respect for the team at Rhys. And their customer service has been extremely efficient. But at this point I don’t know how much longer I can add to my collection if there’s no ‘ah-ha’ moment.

I’ve found the 2012 Pinots to be quite enjoyable/approachable when they were released. They’re young and will be better after some years, but offer plenty of pleasure (speaking of the Horseshoe, Alpine, Bearwallow, Family Farm, haven’t opened the lower production Pinots). I haven’t had one in a while, but the 2011’s were similar albeit not quite as deep. Hope to taste a 2013 next weekend.

-Al

Have tasted most vintages immediately before bottling or immediately after bottling.
At those points in time, the pinots frequently had tremendous fruit with good structure.
After about 6 months to a year the wines tended to close down (sometimes significantly).
This pattern reminds me of how Red Burgundy tends to age.

Although I don’t have a crystal ball, I believe that the currently closed pinots will emerge from their shell after about 10-15 yrs of aging and should be quite special. (At least I hope so!)(And I hope to be around to verify it!)

TTT

So you haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid like so many others here?

I am unclear where and how these wines will age. They are ‘intriguing’ right now, but that can turn to hate if they eventually turn crappy. I feel like there have been so many changes in the very short history of these wines already: vineyards ripped out, oak treatments, stem inclusions and at the high prices being charged are financing their expansion into new vineyard sites. So far, the verdict is out and we will see. Right now there is no track record. I enjoy them, but must say that the best may be the syrah.

This is my take as well though I have more confidence in some bottlings/vintages than in others. I’m happy to have a fair amount of Rhys in my cellar slowly aging their way to maturity but my current intention is to drop off the list due to lack of storage and having a lot that I’m waiting on already. Of course I’ve taken that resolution before and put it off for “one more season…”

The 2011 Bearwallow convinced me to keep buying the reds. Maybe it is an atypically light vintage, but sometimes less is more, in terms of expressiveness, (and earlier gratification ). I really enjoyed the 2009 Horseshoe Chard, and was wowed by the 2012 version: it had a flavor profile similar to a 2002 Verget Vaillons Chablis drank some time ago, but with an acid level beyond that wine, closer to 2012-13 dry German Riesling. This gave it lots of precision without becoming shrill. Could anyone comment on acid levels at Rhys in 2013 compared to 2012?

I was less impressed with the 2009 Alpine Chard versus Horseshoe. While it was a bigger wine with a more complex evolution in the glass, the elements weren’t quite as harmonious, or approaching elegance IMHO, compared with the 'Shoe.
Perhaps I will open an Alpine Chard from another vintage before the futures offering, to get another data point.

They expanded their plantings of Chardonnay at Alpine. My recollection is that the 2010 vintage included Chardonnay fruit from one of the new blocks at Alpine (roughly doubled or tripled their acreage?). I don’t know that they’ve changed the wine-making much for the Chard, but it comes from different blocks.

-Al

I know most of the focus has been on the Pinots and Chards but does anyone have thoughts about the Syrahs? I havent tried one but am curious to and would be interested to know which might be drinking well now (if any).

Couple more thoughts: I think our group erred in not decanting the wines a little earlier. They were definitely softening and opening a bit by the end of dinner. I took home a Chardonnay, I wonder if anyone else from dinner took home bottles, and what their impression were the next day?

I was excited to try some of the earlier vintage wines, not having done so in quite a while. A 2007 Swan Terrace at another dinner a few weeks ago was truly brilliant.

And another thought - if we had opened, say, a 2006 or 2008 Dujac Clos de la Roche, should we have expected it to show any differently than some of these wines did? I honestly don’t think so.

I remain a big Rhys fan, and continue to believe they are already one of the top Pinot and Chardonnay producers in the state, and it’s only getting better.

The syrahs are great, but I haven’t opened one since about a year ago, so cannot answer to which ones are drinking well at the moment.