2019 Rhys "Alpine Hillside" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir 1.5L (Winery Direct Library Release)
Special Order
New
98RP
96JD
96JG
96VN
$549.95
Special Order: Estimated to be available for delivery or pickup by 11/10/2026.
12 Available for Purchase
98
Wine Advocate
Like its Horseshoe Hillside counterpart, the 2019 Pinot Noir Alpine Hillside Vineyard is spectacular throughout and redefines what is possible with this grape variety in California. The nose amplifies the intensity of the Alpine bottlings’ aromatic complexity, spotlighting minty, herbal and citrus-rind aromas, offering an almost cooling quality to the dark fruits and dried spices layered beneath. The palate is supple, enveloping and supremely elegant, maintaining impressive levity and energy despite its expansive frame. The finish is simultaneously impactful yet restrained, with its substantial tannin structure receding before returning, swelling and gaining continuous power and length. This is a magnificent wine that should be present in any serious collection of Pinot Noir.
Professional Reviews
96
Jeb Dunnuck
Another parcel selection from an estate vineyard, the 2019 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard Hillside reveals a medium ruby color to go with complex notes of ripe red and black fruits, dried herbs, earth, leather, and baking spices. Rich, medium-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and balanced, it has some bloody, gamey, exotic characteristics as well as enough tannins to warrant 2-4 years of bottle age. While it doesn’t match the magical 2018, it's a seriously brilliant 2019 that's well worth seeking out and cellaring. 96+
96
John Gilman
The 2019 Hillside bottling from Alpine Vineyard is a beautiful young pinot noir. The bouquet still shows a nice touch of its youthful stems from the whole clusters, but these are covered up by a refined blend of sweet dark berries, black plums, pomegranate, coffee bean, gamebird, a complex base of dark soil tones, a suave framing of new oak and the aforementioned sweet stem tones in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a superb core of fruit, great transparency and bounce, fine-grained tannins and a long, nascently complex and absolutely perfectly balanced finish. All this great bottle of pinot noir needs is time in the cellar to fully blossom!
96
Vinous
The 2019 Pinot Noir Alpine Hillside is completely shut down today. Beams of tannin totally wrap around the fruit today. Readers should plan on being very patient here. This is an especially austere wine. Although this is a barrel selection, many of the barrels for Alpine Hillside emerge from parcels in the middle of the hill, where the terrain is the steepest. (AG)
Details
| Type | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Origin | Santa Cruz Mountains, California, United States |
| Bottle Size | 1.5 L (Magnum) |
| SKU | 1931423 |
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