Is it me or is $150 a big ask for Rhys Hillsides. Seems not that long ago it was under $50 and I had to drop out at $75, tho I continued for a bit with Alesia bottles. I expect they will have not problem finding folks to pay the tariff, but where is the line when your early customer base gets left behind? And is that even a concern?
I opened a 2012 Horseshoe pinot last weekend that was so much better than anything Iāve tried from '06 through '11 (though I was pretty fond of some '06s) that I felt like Iād spent thousands of dollars over a half decade while the the Rhys team was harnessing the potential of their sites. This 2012 ran circles around any of the pinot bottles Iāve tried from '07 through '11.
Looking into my small cellar, it appears I stopped buying Hillsides a while back. All my Rhys are Bearwallow, Alpine, and Horseshoe. Still have over a mixed case and am reluctant to open as they get lower in numbers. Will miss āem when they are gone.
The new Alesia regime is just declassified Rhys and worth a look, Robert. They scratch the itch at a fair price. You can also subscribe to the smaller-format offering if youād rather have a couple of glasses of the vineyard designate for about the same money as five glasses of its declassified relative.
I have been a case buyer of the Alesias; when my bin empties, I refill. I have skipped a few of the offers because the bin doesnāt empty that fast.
Old time wine writers used to say, Chateau de Kevin for $12ā¦the same price as Chateau de Mel, who has been around foreverā¦what is Ch de Kevin thinking??
But if Chateau Kev opened at $6 and eventually went to $12, then they said, What a greedy winery!!
No winning!
Joe Heitz used to say that he priced wine as what he thought they were worth, not what it cost him to make the wine.He compared himself to an artist. Artists donāt charge acc to the cost of art supplies, he said.
$150 a bottle does put Rhys at the top of the price pyramid.
Just to be clear, Mel: this is a special, limited release and has always been priced at $150. While there has been a price increase in Rhysā other wines in the last couple of years, this is not one of them and the thread title is misleading.
I think there are plenty of example of wineries that have their one special cuvee of CA/OR Pinot priced at around $150-200. Certainly not cheap, but also not a big outlier, and the quality is thereā¦
The only one I buy at these prices are the Rhys Hillsides, although I have bought a few of the Palissage that Daniel mentioned when I was at the winery last year. My point was just that there are many wineries offering their one-off special bottles at similar prices. Rhys is the only one thatās āworth itā to me.