EWG Rhys Vertical and Horizontal Tasting

David set up a wonderful dinner at Claude & Co to do a vertical and horizontal tasting of Rhys. The atmosphere, food and company were outstanding. The wines weren’t half bad either. champagne.gif

I didn’t take detailed notes, but here is a listing of the wines tasted with some impressions. Overall, the Chardonnays stole the show for me. Its not an understatement to say that collectively these are some of the best chardonnays that have been produced in California in the last decade. Family Farm Pinots were nice, but I think I prefer some of the other vineyards. These seem bigger and more brooding to me. The 2006 horizontal of wines were all outstanding. Home was showing beautifully, Skyline and Alpine Hillside were great, but getting better and Alpine was very solid. These wines seemed to have a better mouthfeel and delicacy for my taste.

Thanks again to David for a truly memorable tasting.

Alpine Chardonnay:

2004 – Beautiful. I know the website says “drink” but I don’t think you need to be in any hurry. One of the better California Chardonnay’s I have ever tasted. Impeccable balance with wonderful fruit. Consistent with the two other bottles I have had.
2005 – Seemed a little off
2006 – Great acidity and my third favorite of the flight. Still very young to me and may round out a little bit.
2007 – Very solid, but not the 04 or 08
2008 - Beautiful and very similar in style and mouthfeel to the 2004.
2009 – Like the structure and the fruit profile, but young. I think this will be very good.


Family Farm Pinot Noir:

2004 – Bretty, not really my style. Tasted a bit like a CDP
2007 – Very nice, dark fruit, ripe
2008 –
2009 – This tasted bretty to me as well
2010 –


2006 Pinot Horizontal:

Home – My favorite of the flight. Drinking wonderfully right now with an ethereal mouthfeel.
Alpine – Solid, but young. Might have suffered from from being in this group
Alpine Hillside – Very nice wine with good concentration and balance. Needs time.
Swan Terrace – Great structure and balance, definitely on its way to being a great wine. Still young.

Thanks Tom. Claud totally hit it out of the park with the food. With half the members of our group on the Rhys list, several of us from the beginning, it was time to do a tasting. The Chardonnay and 2006 flights were naturals; for a Pinot Noir vertical, I chose the Family Farm as it had five wines released, and seemed to be earlier maturing (according to the Rhys website) than the other vineyards. And I had the 2004.

For me, the last flight was the most impressive. The Swan Terrace was so elegant and so balanced. The Alpine Hillside, on the other hand, had more of everything than the other wines. I thought both of those wines rose above all the other wines. The other thing that struck me was how similar the 2007 and 2008’s were with the Chardonnays and the Family Farms. Both of the 2007’s were very strucutured, tight and destined for a long evolution. The 2008’s on the other hand were ready to drink, at least for me.

As a result of this tasting, I’ll let all the wines (and I have them from 2006 on) sit a while longer as all of these, with the exception of the 2004 Home and possibly the 2006 Alpine, should improve.

And let’s not forget the 1983 Rieussec, which was drinking beautifully.

Thanks for getting this rolling. I’ll add some thoughts later. And Leslie should have some cool pics.
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Hmm…the circle continues to close in on the 2009 Family Farm. Going to have to dig one out soon. I don’t mind a bit of brett, but might as well get it now.

Thanks for the note! Very useful to have the update.

I will also add some thoughts when I can.

I’d like to just say that these wines were all very impressive and show a consistency in style and flavor profiles making them very distinctive. There seems to be a common thread that ties them together, whether it is the flavor profile of the vineyards, the structural elements (vintage dependent) or the age worthiness (style) of these wines. There is no mistaking the Rhys commitment to quality. I have to say, I find these wines are imho, the very top in terms of quality in the US. They strike me as domestic Grand Cru Burgundy, a notch above. I’m sure one could make this argument for other wineries, but for me, I have yet to taste wines that are as good as what Kevin, Jeff and the crew at Rhys are producing. It is clear that Kevin has set out to make distinctive, high quality wines and if this tasting was any indication, I think he has gloriously achieved that goal.

I should also point out that for me the '04 Chardonnay was the only mature wine in the lineup. I see these wines holding great potential for age worthiness, and in most cases, they demand cellar time before they are ready.

Gregg,

When I was drinking the 2008 Horseshoe Pinot the other night I had some similar thoughts. I was more than a little bit reminded of the basic form of a Gevrey or Nuits - premier or perhaps even grand cru.

Interesting that the '04 Family Farm was not well received. It’s the most impressive bottle of Rhys pinot I’ve yet to try. (consumed about 1 year ago)

I’ve never had an '04 Alpine chard, but I agree that the '08 is stunning.

Thanks for the notes guys. Really sorry to have missed this one. I’m looking forward to eating at Claud’s place next time. At any rate, I won’t open the 2010 Alpine Chard just yet!

It was initially not very pleasant, but as it got some air it improved, and it further improved with the food (two courses, pork belly and something I can’t remember). I think most of the group liked it more than Tom, but it was not like the other Family Farms or 2006’s, perhaps because Jeff didn’t make it.

A fantastic dinner (Thanks David Lewin!) and a real treat to get to taste all of these, which has also made me pleased with my purchases. Both the chardonnays (except for the corker) and pinots were fantastic. Truly unique texture and profile for California.

We were missing our usual scribes so detailed note might not exist. But I’ll just share my short or one word notes.

Alpine Chardonnays
04 – All I could say was beautiful. Doubt there is any need to drink up but I really like where it is right now.
05 – Badly corked. Bummer. You could actually weave your way through to sense the lovely fruit but ultimately you had to get that stuff out of your glass. [swearing.gif]
06 – Drinking well now but I think could still use a few years.
07 – Higher acid profile.
08 – Softer than the 07 and very well balance. Loved it.
09 – Much more disjointed but I like the elements. Needs a few years.

Family Farm
04 – At first it did seem to show some brett and the finish was off. A candied element at first. For me this wine really transformed quickly. My only follow up was “Wow, this came around”. Give a few minutes of air and drink up. Awesome!

I didn’t make any other notes on these but I thought they were all wonderful wines. As some of us discussed, these are some of the very few Cali pinots I have had that have a reminiscent texture and mouth-feel to the old William Selyems, (pre Bob) albeit with a darker fruit profile.

06 Horizontal
I thought these were all drinking well. The Swan Terrace is a very special wine IMO. Amazing to me how good these wines are. As most know, I prefer my American Pinot to be from Oregon on most occasions, primarily that I generally find Cali pinot fatiguing. Not that I don’t love Cali pinot because I do and I own lots of it, but it is not something I can drink every day. But these Rhys wines hit into an area that does not wear me out. Very happy that these are working so well as the fruit starts to tone down, even though they are still fairly primary. I think I am going to drink up on the Home and maybe the Alpine. But the Swan Terrace and Alpine Hillside will continue to rest.

Cheers,

Jason

I also think I’m a bit more sensitive to Brett than others and quite candidly did not go back to it. At least one other person close to me at the table really enjoyed it.

Here are my notes from the evening.

Alpine Chardonnays:

’04: ethereal nose, lovely lemon confit custard, constantly changing, gorgeous
’05: corked
’06: shy at first but aromas emerge after 1 hr or so. Crisp acidity, delicious texture, needs more time.
’07: closed, a bit of oak on the finish, not ready.
’08: open from the get go with exuberant tropical aromas. Richly appointed, least structural wine of the flight, but the acidity becomes more pronounced 1-2 hrs later.
’09: terribly young and somewhat disjointed. citrus/lemon oil. Hold.

Family Farm Pinots:

’04: reduced a bit with barnyard aromas which blow off after 1 hr. high toned, slightly candied fruit with a bit of baking spice. Excellent with the duck.
’07: reticent nose, forest floor, pine sap, spice. The acidity hits you initially then lifts the fruit in the mid, but there is still a little tannin slightly clipping the finish. Crunchy fruit.
’08: Very aromatic, dark fruits, with some Provencal spices, juicy fruit but lacking in structure, still a good wine but I would be concerned about longevity.
’09: Slightly closed nose with upfront structured, fruit, beautiful texture with good length already.
’10: Surprisingly open, lovely fruit (reminds me of young Dujac). Some oak shows in this young wine but it was nice a drink.

2006 Pinots:

Home: open, lovely nose with dark fruits, pine forest. Good intensity and length.
Swan Terrace: Absolutely lovely refined wine
Alpine: really open with beautiful fruit and just entering maturity as the structure supports nicely from the background.
Alpine Hillside: My notes just say, “this will be a beauty”. The structure suggests a wine that will develop for many years. The fruit has that lovely Gevrey like texture and spice.

Thanks gentlemen…Excellent notes and data points for some very nice wines. I love older wines so I will probably leave most of my Rhys in storage.

Cheers!
Marshall

Thanks everyone for the great notes. Given the high quality of Rhys wines essentially right out of the gate - the future appears bright as the vinyards continue to mature! As long as the weather doesn’t get crazy on us? hitsfan [cheers.gif]

Marshall - I know what you mean, but I have to say some of the wines were in a really great place. You should try them in their very young adulthood. From this tasting, the '04 Alpine Chard, '06 Alpine & Home PN are drinking really well and in such a nice point in their development, it would be unfortunate not to experience this moment in time.

Thanks Gregg; Will do!

Cheers! [cheers.gif]
Marshall

I agree, the 06 Home PN and the 04 Chardonnay really peaking. I’m sure the 06 Home will probably improve, but I’m going to have a hard time not opening one soon for a special occasion.

Had an '06 Alpine PN this weekend. Popped and poured, and I found this in a much better place than a year ago… loved it.

Thanks so much for the update on the '06 Rhys pinots! That was the first year there were a lot of wines available and I have mine buried still. The Swan went through a real ugly duckling period so it’s good to hear that it’s come around.

But I’m not surprised to hear that the chardonnays were the stars. I’ve been incredibly impressed with them since the first release and IMO they’ve gone from strength to strength. Looking forward to the next vintage of Horseshoe Chardonnay this Autumn.