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: 2017 Rhys "Skyline Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

2017 Rhys "Skyline Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir

SKU #1490821 96 points Jeb Dunnuck

Outer quote mark The 2017 Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard is terrific stuff, but it’s going to need bottle age. Deep ruby/purple-hued with awesome notes of spice red and black fruits, sappy herbs, iodine, lavender, and crushed rocks, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, good concentration, building tannins, and a great finish. Inner quote mark (10/2019)

94 points John Gilman

Outer quote mark The 2017 Pinot Noir “Skyline Vineyard” bottling from Rhys Vineyards is just beautiful this year. It exhibits picture-perfect ripeness at 12.9 percent and delivers great vibrancy and purity in its aromatic constellation of sweet dark berries, black plums, raw cocoa, a hint of gamebird, lovely soil complexity, a bit of bonfire and a lovely foundation of new oak. On the palate the wine is suave, full-bodied, focused and beautifully transparent, with a sappy core, lovely structural tension, modest tannins and a very long, very pure and extremely classy finish. This is dynamite young Pinot Noir, but like many of the Rhys 2017s, it is not going to demand any extended period of hibernation before it becomes utterly riveting in the glass! Inner quote mark (7/2019)

93 points Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark Pale to medium ruby-purple, the 2017 Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard opens with savory notions of green olive, prosciutto, licorice and dust with notes of citrus peel, wild blackberries, tobacco and cinnamon. Light to medium-bodied, it has a great core of savory, floral-tinged fruits, framed by firm, grainy tannins and seamless freshness and finishing very long and very spicy. (EB) Inner quote mark (2/2020)

93 points Vinous

Outer quote mark The 2017 Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard is marked by a decidedly ripe profile. Succulent wild cherry, kirsch, hard candy, mint, leather, spice and sweet tobacco are given an extra kick of savory complexity from the 100% whole clusters. The 2017 offers quite a bit of aromatic and flavor complexity in the mid-weight style that is typical of the 2017 Pinots at Rhys. (AG) Inner quote mark (10/2019)

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2017 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.