2009 Rhys Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard- USA, California, San Francisco Bay, San Mateo County (1/27/2013)
I have a deep stash of Rhys in my cellar, but have been letting all of the Pinots rest; I’ve only tried them at the winery. I decided to check in on this one as I have a few. Way too young, but still outstanding. Expressive nose and palate with spicy red and raspberries. What struck me were the non-fruit nuances; piney Northeastern forest floor, roses, moist tobacco. The tannins are substantial but sleek. While I don’t think I’ll open another for years, this is already stellar. (95 pts.)
Interesting. My bottle the other night was terrible. Dirt and stems with no fruit, that only worsened as the night went on. The last two notes on CT concur. One comment suggests that the winery has discovered a flawed lot. Anyone have thoughts or info on this?
Jim,
After we released the wine we have seen a Brett problem with some of the '09 Family Farm bottles. The wine was bottled in two lots and we believe only one of the two is affected (which explains the different impressions on CT). Also Brett tends to manifest itself in different ways varying by bottle.
In any case we are refunding or replacing any bad bottles and will be in touch.
Kevin, question as well…how were the two lots handled differently that may have resulted in the Brett problem? …although it sounds as if you are not 100% sure that both lots are not affected.
I bought 12 bottles. I’m not much of a lover of primary fruit so opening wines just to see if they’re affected would not be much fun for me, so my question is, considering there’s 2 lots and only one affected, is there a lot markings anywhere?
Bob,
No the lots were handled the same. Since we do not filter our wines, we are extremely careful and thorough about sterilizing all barrels and equipment but that is not always enough. In this case, apparently a few cells of Brett made it in to tank and began multiplying. After testing below measurable DNA threshold (<10cells per ml) both before and after bottling, this bloom was a very disappointing surprise. Frankly, there is almost no method to have 100% certainty that a wine has no Brett. The most effective insurance is sterile filtration. Unfortunately, we find that this permanently diminishes Pinot Noir and we have never filtered any of our wines. Instead we make every effort to put unfiltered, Brett free wine in bottle but there is some risk.
To put Brett in context, it exists in >50% of the Burgundies that we have tested but in many cases it remains at a low enough level that is undetectable by human senses. In some cases it is detectable but the aromatic compounds are not high enough to cause a problem for most tasters. This is a very complex topic but the bottom line is “Brett is not the kiss of death for wine” (or I need to get a refund for most of the French wine in my cellar!). Instead it is a variable and unpredictable element of wine that can become a problem.
Leo,
There are no markings. This was the first bottling of this size that we had. For this reason we bottled from two tanks.
Customers are welcome to replace all their wine without opening any or to open one and check in. Our refund policy does not expire so you can also wait to open the wine in the future and we will happily refund if you don’t like it.
The only bottles I’ve had were stellar, but I haven’t tried one in about a year. Have 3 let, and was planning to sit on them to see where they go. It is always nice to see a producer stand behind their wines the way that you do, Kevin.
Thanks for the explanation, really appreciate it. Fully understand thresholds etc, and although not Burgundy, have had my share of early '80’s Cordier wines. Will pull an '09 FF soon and see where we are…and thanks for the replacement policy.
Interesting - My only experience with “Rhys” wines only comes from one FF 2009 which I brought to a dinner party where Pinot Noir was the play of the evening. I can say it was not memorable and lacked fruit. To compare - my only other limited experiences are with my Alesia wines and I just scratched my head over this FF bottle as all other Alesia wines I experienced were far superior.
BTW - actually I had a SC Mountain 2009 last night which blow me away - as it did with all who tasted.
Todd,
We add some SO2 as the grapes go into the fermenter and again after malo. Frankly, I don’t think SO2 is a very powerful tool in managing Brett (at least in our experience). We test extensively and this 09 FF was Brett free (by DNA Scorpion) through bottling. The best technique is probably to make a wine depleted in the nutrients that Brett needs to bloom. I am beginning to believe that Family Farm is just a very fertile wine! (FWIW, we add no nutrients or yeast of any kind so it as depleted as naturally possible)
Barney Watson, from our OSU, has spoken at length about low so2 (or no) adds at the onset and then the potential for brett to be prevalent. Oak sugars are also a catalyst to its development. But if you aren’t utilizing so2, what else are you using? And if you aren’t doing much, then it only makes sense that you have a brett problem.
Todd,
I think you misunderstood, I said that we do use SO2 at the onset as well as in barrel. If those practices have kept you Brett-free, you are a very lucky man.
A few points here . . . . As you stated, the scorpions showed no detectable brett cells, but as you point out, this does not mean zero - it simply means that they are below the detection threshhold. This has been a big issue to me in the past and currently - wineries continue to say that their wines are ‘brett free’ when in fact they may not be, Tis certainly a challenge.
Also, have you experimented at all with cross flow filtration, and if not, why haven’t you? I know the ‘conventional wisdom’ is that filtered wines are somehow ‘stripped’ of something, but again I’m wondering if you’ve looked into the newer, gentler filtration systems. And if you have, have you experimented with some filtered and some not filtered?!?!?
Last but not least, are you certain that it’s as clear as ‘one lot had brett and the other didn’t’? How did you come to this conclusion and are you continuing to evaluate this?