I have not been a fan of the older vintages of Family Farm. A bottle of the 2011 opened last month was a revelation and really good, but the 2007 today was light and lacking depth. While there is red fruit and secondary development, the finish is short and ultimately lacked interest and excitement. Drink now, I don’t see this getting any better.
Apparently it’s open older Rhys day. Sorry yours wasn’t so good. The 2008 Alpine was very fine.
2008 Alpine is a star. I do have a couple of those left.
Family Farm is basically a ‘valley floor’ vineyard. Many of the other Rhys vineyards are mountain tops or slopes: Alpine, Horseshoe and Skyline. I don’t think the Family Farm has ever really show the sort of depth or structure where I would be tempted to give it much aging.
These vines were young leaf. The 2011 is a nicely developed and pleasing Family Farm.
I opened one in dec. it was really good. sorry your was not to your liking.
I thought Home was on the floor, but FF was on Skyline which is a ridgeline maybe 1500’ up?
FF is down off Portola Rd, not up in the mountains.
Hmm, I know that area well as a cyclist. The vineyard I presume it to be smells intensely of sulfur for large parts of the year. I didn’t think that was the same vineyard since this map implies FF is on the west side of Skyline: Estate Vineyards | Rhys
Not sure how exact that map is meant to be but I think the instructive thing to take from the is FF is next to the Home vineyard. It also appears as if Skyline Blvd is of a lower altitude at the point it is near those vineyards. It’s been a long while since I’ve been there specifically so I don’t remember how true that is.
Hi all,
Family Farm is situated on alluvial (no bedrock) soil on the east side of the mountains. The Home is on a rockier foothill slope about 300-400 yards away but on the other side of the San Andreas fault. The wines are quite different. Family Farm always shows the generosity of fruit of its clay soil, with a loamy, peaty complexity, while the Home shows the structure and tension of a hillside, rocky soil. The Home needs years to mature.
Both are quite different than our higher elevation mountain sites (Alpine, Horseshoe, Skyline, Mt Pajaro) which range from 900-2300 ft above sea level.
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