Hi everyone,
As we have noted in our vintage charts 2010 is an earlier maturing vintage of Chardonnay at Alpine and Horseshoe. All of our prior vintage Chardonnays are still quite youthful (in fact I still hesitate to open the 2007) and aging extremely well. Of more recent vintages I think 2011 might be more of a mid-term vintage (I need to check-in but qtys are extremely low) while 2012-2014 seem to be aging at rate similar to the 2004-2009 vintages (ie quite slowly).
Meanwhile some customers (and one critic) have told me that they think 2010 is our best Chardonnay vintage yet so YMMV depending on your individual preference for a more mature or more coiled expression of Chardonnay from our sites.
Robert,
Blocking malo is a good technique for warmer sites with lower natural acidity. Our sites are cool and quite high in natural acidity so we allow the wines to go through complete malo.
Opened 1 this weekend. It is ready to drink, but I enjoyed it and didnāt think it was tired or old. I wouldnāt sit on these much longer though as the upside is not there.
Based on this thread, I also opened one of these tonight. I have followed it for a few hours now, and it does seem advanced compared to other Rhys Chardonnay with comparable bottle age that I have tried. My bottle is enjoyable, and I donāt regret buying it or opening it with tonightās dinner. However, the wine definitely is soft, ripe and opulent, lacking youthful tension, and there is a candied apple/pear profile to the wine. I advise drinking these and not holding them.
Last night it was definitely advanced and heading towards OTH for me.
Fortunately I opened my last one a year or two ago. It was delicious.
We drank our last bottle Sunday. I wouldnāt have called it advanced at all, but itās not one of my favorite Rhys Chardonnays.
Opened a 2010 Alpine Chardonnay a couple nights ago. First night it was one note, very much tasted like an over the hill chardonnay. We left a couple glasses for last night and it was a completely different animal - tons more complexity, longer finish, tons of minerals. With my limited experience around aged chardonnay, the progression night over night was very odd.
About a year back I opened an 07 Alpine Chard and that was a stunner with no hint whatsoever it was fading. The 07 was clearly better in my mind, though the 2010 was not far behind based on the night two sampling.
Planning to pop a 10 Horseshoe Chard today or tomorrow and will report back on that one.
I opened a 2010 Alpine Chardonnay a week ago, prompted by this thread. The color was worryingly bright gold, but the wine was quite good. More rich and less chiseled than other vintages, but in a good place, probably middle to later maturity. I might compare it to a premier cru Chassagne from a riper vintage like 2009.
We also had a 2010 Alpine over the weekend. Chrisās description is pretty good, my notes: shows what might be a light bit of oxidation on first opening, but that seems to fade over an hour or so; fairly rich, nice deep stone fruit, hint of peach pit, nice mineral finish. Definitely needs air. I quite liked the wine, though I donāt think Iād keep bottles for any length of time, and I prefer some of the more focused vintages if given a choice.
I had this over Friday and Saturday night. Iād call the color a dark gold. Just a stunning bottle of mature cali chard. For me definitely not OTH. Certainly deep and rich but minerally and racy at the same time. Wow. This is what makes Rhys great, IMO.
Over the last several years Iāve had some Mt Eden Chards from the 80s & 90s that were golden brown in color that were still fine.
The proof is in the palate!!
TTT
Opened one this past Saturday, based on recent (thank you) notes.
Advanced color, veering toward gold. The nose has some edginess to it, though not in a fresh way; some roasted nuts and over-ripe yellow fruits. The palate redeems the aforementioned qualities, and by the second glass, this is in good form, proving a solid match to some gnocchi with lobster and peas. By the final glass, over an hour into it, this is just fine on the palate (thanks to enough acidity), and even the nose seems to freshen up a bit. Glad others have mentioned to drink now, I think itās the right play. 13,4% abv.
Audozed 2 hours, served non-blind.
Hereās my question - if this was a Grand Cru White Burgundy, and a 2010, and it had that color and some of the flavor and aroma characteristics that have been mentioned here, would one consider this āwonderfully agedā or 'premoxed '?
Just trying to understand . . .
Iāve really liked/loved all the Rhys Chards Iāve had (including the Alder Springs).
The best bottle I had was their 2004 ~4 years ago (labeled SCM, but I believe all from alpineā¦bottle was from a passive cellar). The color was darker than normal and the palate was developed (i.e. advanced, tho thatās not my preferred term). The wine was complex, savory and fantastic. Their second vintage, my understanding is they bottled with a fairly low level of sulfurā¦so maybe it counts as natural wine! 
I havenāt had any of the 09/10 vintages discussed here (had them near release, but not recently), so I canāt compare to say if theyāre on the same track or not, but I wouldnāt assume the worst here.
As good as the 04 was, the 1990 Mt Eden Chard I had (around the same time) beat it outā¦youthful & fresh yet showing appealing signs of development.
Premox vs development: Imo, premox is a completely separate thing from ānormalā aging. Iāve had too many young whites (mostly white burgs) that were young and fresh, yet had that disgusting sharp sherry component that makes me pour it down the drain. Describing it as sherried does a disservice to wines in the sherry realmā¦Jura whites are in that groupā¦I love them and donāt see them at all similar to premoxed whites (wish they were).
From magnum, driven from Rhys down the hill to a 51 degree cellar, this was as described above. This is in the fully mature stage with same butterscotch and browning color already noted. A beautiful wine but ready now.
Any chance of putting them under screwcap Kevin?
If it was a Grand Cru Burgundy weād be saying āit was premoxed, but great value for a Grand Cru.ā 
Okay, seriously I think this is just a vintage to drink sooner. Those exist in Burgundy too. The bottles of 2010 Iāve had have clearly aged faster than other vintages but have all been sound. The 12 and 13 we had at Rhys seemed destined for long life.
There would not be a premium 2010 Chardonnay on the Australian market thatās sealed with a screwcap that would be deemed advanced.