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

2014 Rhys "Skyline Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

SKU #1347334 94 points John Gilman

Outer quote mark The 2014 Skyline Vineyard pinot noir is amazingly aromatic for its youth, with all sorts of exotic spice and herb tones wafting from the glass to augment gorgeous fruit and a profound base of soil. The bouquet is flat out stunning, offering up a complex and exotic nose of black cherries, plums, sarsaparilla, just marvelous soil tones, a potpourri of sweet herb tones and a topnote of woodsmoke. On the palate the wine is deep, pure and full-bodied, with a serious chassis of ripe tannin, bright acids and excellent focus and grip on the very long, and very young finish. This is still a young and adolescent wine that needs some extended cellaring, but it is going to be sex appeal personified when it is ready to go. If there has ever been a more exotic Rhys Skyline pinot noir, I would love to taste it! (JG) 94+ Inner quote mark (8/2016)

94 points Vinous

Outer quote mark A huge, tannic wine, the 2014 Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard is at least several years from delivering true pleasure. Sweet floral notes add aromatic presence, but the 2014 remains a tightly wound ball of energy. White pepper, cherry jam and chalk meld into the deep, searing finish marked by Nebbiolo-like tannin. (AG) 94+ Inner quote mark (7/2016)

93 points Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark Coming from a rocky terroir located right off of Skyline drive, which is surprisingly the warmest site Kevin works with, yet also results in the lowest alcohol level of all of the Pinot Noirs, the 2014 Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard sees 100% whole cluster and one-third new French oak. Stems, pepper, crushed rocks, smoked earth and ample darker fruits emerge from this serious, concentrated, structured beauty that has ripe tannin, a beautiful mid-palate and a big finish. It needs to be forgotten for 4-5 years and will keep for 10-15 years after that. (JD) 93+ Inner quote mark (10/2016)

90 points Burghound

Outer quote mark This too is both elegant and attractively perfumed with its array of floral, red and dark berry as well as spiced tea hints. There is good volume and intensity to the muscular yet refined flavors that offer excellent length though with the same hint of dryness that will likely dissipate with several years of keeping and my rating assumes that this will be the case. Patience required. Inner quote mark (6/2017)

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2014 Rhys "Skyline Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

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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.

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