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: 2014 Rhys "Alpine Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

2014 Rhys "Alpine Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

SKU #1296588 95 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2014 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard bristles with energy. Rose petal, mint, white pepper and blood orange give the Alpine its super-appealing aromatic upper register, but there is plenty of depth lurking beneath. Here the flavors are bright and nicely focused, while the richness of the vintage is mostly felt in the dense, potent finish. (AG) Inner quote mark (6/2016)

94 points John Gilman

Outer quote mark The 2014 Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir from Rhys is another outstanding young bottle of Pinot, with its whole clusters showing a bit today, but all of the constituent components in place for greatness down the road. The wine offers up a deep and nascently complex nose of dark berries, espresso, woodsmoke, a superb base of dark soil tones, a touch of stems (which are already starting to show some cinnamon shadings), chicory and a touch of cedary wood. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and strikingly mineral, with a fine core, impeccable focus and balance, suave tannins and a very, very long, tangy and promising finish. This is going to be a great wine (I particularly like how vibrant it is on the backend), but it will demand a bit of patience to allow it to blossom completely with proper bottle age. 94+ Inner quote mark (7/2016)

94 points Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark Another complete, broad and layered red that delivers on all accounts, the 2014 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard reveals a healthy ruby color as well as a darker core of red and black raspberry fruits, peppery spice and forest floor in its medium to full-bodied, balanced personality. (JD) Inner quote mark (10/2016)

91 points Burghound

Outer quote mark This is aromatically quite similar to the Alpine Hillside if perhaps just a touch riper. There is excellent intensity to the big-bodied, dense and powerful flavors that coat the palate with dry extract before terminating in an overtly structured and robust finish. This is a big and very serious wine that is very clearly built-to-age and one that is going to need every bit of a decade, indeed perhaps even longer, to fully resolve the prominent tannic spine. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that if you're not prepared to age this at least 5-ish years that it would be better to trying one of the other wines in the range. *Outstanding* Inner quote mark (6/2017)

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2014 Rhys "Alpine Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

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Product Reviews:

By: Kate Soto | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/18/2019 | Send Email

A beautiful, elegant wine. The nose is savory and perfumed with notes of olives and jasmine tea and violets. On the palate there is a graceful, seamless texture with an enormous sense of poise and balance. The finish is epic. In short, it's a wine that is drinking really well right now with everything falling into place. Gorgeous.

Additional Information:

Varietal:

Pinot Noir

- One of France's most legendary grapes and the grape that earned Burgundy its reputation. The parent of varietals like Pinot Gris/Grigio and Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir is blue to violet to indigo in color with relatively thin skins, and it is said to have been cultivated in France for more than 2,000 years. At its best, Pinot Noir creates elegant wines that are filled with primary red fruit aromas and flavors while young, revealing with an array of secondary characteristics like earth, smoke, violet, truffle and game with age. The varietal is also known, perhaps better than any, for its ability to translate terroir, or a sense of place. While the best Pinot Noir still comes from Burgundy, it is being produced with increasing success in cooler climates around the world. In France, it is part of the trifecta of grapes that can go into Champagne, and it is also grown in Alsace, Irancy, Jura, Savoie, Lorraine and Sancerre. Outside of France it is produced under the names Pinot Nero and Blauburgunder in Italy's mountainous regions, as Spätburgunder in Germany and as Blauburgunder in Austria. In the US, Pinot Noir has found suitable growing conditions in the cooler parts of California, including Carneros, the Russian River Valley, the Anderson Valley, the Sonoma Coast, Monterey County, the Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Barbara County, as well as in Oregon's Willamette Valley. In recent years, New Zealand has demonstrated its ability to interpret this hard-to-grow varietal, with successful bottlings coming from careful and attentive growers in Central Otago, Martinborough and Canterbury. Chile is also an up-and-coming region for Pinot Noir, creating fresh, fruit-forward, early-drinking and affordable Pinots from the coastal Casablanca Valley and the Limari Valley.

Country:

United States

- When people consider domestic wine, they normally think about the state of California. The fine viticultural Region within California, including the Napa Valley, Sonoma, Santa Cruz Mountains, Mendocino and Santa Barbara, are capable of growing grapes of world-class quality. But there's plenty of fabulous wine coming from other states, too. Oregon, Washington and New York are also causing eyebrows (and glassware) to be raised around the world.

Sub-Region:

California

- With the explosive growth that California's wine industry has seen the past several years, it's easy to view winemaking and grape growing in the Golden State as a recent phenomenon. And while it's true that California's viticultural history is brief compared to several European countries, this state's roots date back well over 200 years. Due to the enormous response to California wine within the United States and worldwide, there are thousands of excellent and diverse wines being produced within the state each year.

Specific Appellation:

Santa Cruz Mountains

- Vineyards dot the valleys and ridges of this coastal AVA just south of San Francisco. Microclimates make it difficult to generalize, and vineyards are frequently separated by acres of forests and meadowlands (not to mention entire towns!), but this is nonetheless known as a cooler-climate zone ideal for pinot noir. Ridge is doubtless the most famous local producer, with its cabernet blend, Monte Bello, named after a Santa Cruz mountain peak. High-quality, low-production chardonnay and some Rhône varietals prosper as well.