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: 2015 Rhys "Alpine Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

2015 Rhys "Alpine Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

SKU #1410028 97 points Jeb Dunnuck

Outer quote mark I think a significant step up over the Horseshoe Vineyard (time will help clear this up, though), the 2015 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard is straight up sensational. Its medium ruby color is followed by a deep, slightly reticent bouquet of cherry pits, black raspberries, dried violets, forest floor and spice. Incredibly nuanced, seamless, silky and refined on the palate, with terrific tension, purity, and concentration, it’s one of the do-not-miss wines of the 2015 vintage! Inner quote mark (8/2017)

95 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2015 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard is another superb wine in this lineup. Nothing in particular stands out. Instead, all the elements come together effortlessly. Rich ample and pliant, the 2015 possesses remarkable depth and density in all of its dimensions. The 2015 was done with only a touch (10%) of whole clusters. What comes through most is the extraordinary quality of the fruit. An infusion of blood orange, pomegranate, mint, white pepper and spices leads into a finish laced with exoticism and allure. Yields were just 0.75 tons per acre. (AG) Inner quote mark (8/2017)

94 points Burghound

Outer quote mark Here the restrained nose is cool, airy and wonderfully seductive while displaying enough floral, herbal tea, sandalwood and spice elements that it resembles in its fashion what one sometimes sees from Vosne; in short, I love the aromatics. There is a lovely sense of verve to the rich and seductively textured medium-bodied flavors that brim with dry extract while delivering superb depth on the lingering finish where the only reproach is a hint of warmth. This is an absolute knockout and while it could be enjoyed young, make no mistake that underneath all of the extract lurks very firm tannins that will likely emerge with a few years of age. *Outstanding* Inner quote mark (5/2018)

94 points John Gilman

Outer quote mark The 2015 Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir from Kevin Harvey and his talented team at Rhys is an outstanding young wine, offering up perfect ripeness at 13%, without any diminution in the expression of this vineyard’s outstanding terroir. The bouquet jumps from the glass in a youthful blend of sweet dark berries, espresso, complex minerality, a touch of stems, woodsmoke, pepper, incipient balsamic tones and a touch of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and exceptionally well-balanced, with a superb core of fruit, ripe, seamless tannins, good acids and lovely transparency on the very, very long, nascently complex finish. This will be a superb bottle, once it has had a full decade in the cellar, and probably is the only 2015 Rhys Pinot Noir bottling that will be able to keep the pace set by the brilliant Pinots made here in 2013 and 2014! (JG) 94+ Inner quote mark (7/2017)

94 points Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark Coming together in the glass with constantly evolving aromas of wild berries, rich spices, orange rind, espresso roast and violets, the superb 2015 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard is a medium-bodied, tight-knit wine that needs a minimum of 5 or 6 years' bottle age. Intensely concentrated and underpinned by succulent acids, the quality of the powdery, velvety tannins is first-rate, and this Pinot Noir's finish is extremely long and stony. There's no doubt, however, that it has shut down since it was bottled. If readers are tempted to pull corks in the near term, I suspect the 2015 Alpine will never be as structurally unforgiving as some of Rhys' efforts from a decade ago, but the real excitement emphatically lies in the future. (WK) 94+ Inner quote mark (5/2018)

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2015 Rhys "Alpine 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.