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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.4 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 19 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 8/20/2019 & rated 90 points: Rhys Dinner Following Rhys Tasting (Prairie Grass - Northbrook IL): Plenty of ripe apple, some baked apple with emerging butterscotch. Probably better a few years back. (1921 views) | | | Tasted by LoireFan on 1/4/2017 & rated 93 points: Vibrant. (1804 views) | | | Tasted by 14frimaire on 7/23/2015: Nice but not as impressive as I recall on release. Seems to have quite a whack of sulfur still. It has slimmed down, but the oak sticks out to my taste; the underlying material doesn't stand up to it. (2118 views) | | | Tasted by Brunello123 on 4/20/2013 & rated 93 points: Not a big Chardonnay fan, but Rhys is making some excellent Chardonnay. The wine is drinking great right now. (3144 views) | | | Tasted by 14frimaire on 5/16/2012: Outstanding. The wood is sticking out a bit at this point, but still beautiful, beautiful stuff. (3275 views) | | | Tasted by Keith Levenberg on 12/14/2011 & rated 87 points: This is actually maturing quite a bit faster than I would have expected. It still has that salty/chalky crackle that's been a signature of this wine at Rhys, but it's turned to a fairly deep yellow-gold color with a corresponding deepening of the fruit complexion. It's hard to say, but it may taste even more like a white Burgundy than it did before, although to the extent it's reminiscent of white Burgundy it's a white Burgundy from the early to mid 1990s. So, I'm not sure how much longer this has to go, but I think this was my last bottle so I guess I'll never know. (4326 views) | | | Tasted by KathrynH on 8/31/2011: - Yellow gold color. (2674 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 8/14/2010 & rated 91 points: Lots of sweet and tart lemon with good weight and slightly backward/ firm structure for now. Very good length. Better in another year or three. (1259 views) | | | Tasted by dougie on 7/5/2010 & rated 92 points: Big and fresh at the same time. A wonderful Chard. Cannot wait to start getting more than 2 bottles a year. (2786 views) | | | Tasted by chablis28 on 6/20/2010 & rated 89 points: This didn't blow me away today. Color heading towards a mature gold. The French Champagne served ahead of it made this wine seem kind of oaky and lacking in vibrancy. Rich, toasty with some decent minerality and citurs flavors. If I had more I don't think I'd wait more than 1 or 2 yrs to drink up. Kind of disapointing. (2450 views) | | | Tasted by rjonwine@gmail.com on 7/10/2009 & rated 92 points: Wine Dinner at J.R. and Renee's with Wild Boar Chops (Chez J.R. and Renee, San Jose, CA): Light medium yellow color; tart lemon, mineral and grapefruit nose; intense, rich, tart citrus, grapefruit, apple, quince and lime palate with medium-plus acidity; long finish 92+ pts. (2775 views) | | | Tasted by Dave Dalluge on 8/29/2008 & rated 93 points: Bordeaux at Siggy's: The color is a vibrant yellow. The nose is ostensibly a straightforward melange of tropical flavors (citrus, pineapple) but upon further reflection there is a decent secondary layer of aromas including oak, smoke and minerality. Exotic but interesting. On the palate this is packed with flavor. My first thought was grapefruit but here again more traditional flavors emerge as secondary notes. Good structure to balance out the fruit. Great finish. I'd be hard pressed to pick this as chardonnay in a blind tasting, but it was an extremely satisfying wine. (3222 views) | | | Tasted by Siggy on 8/29/2008 & rated 92 points: Tasting Group Dinner w/ Kevin Sidders - Steaks & Bordeaux (Our House): Rich, medium yellow color. At first this showed a restrained, Chablis-like nose of flint/slate and toasty oak. In the glass, gobs of ripe, spicy, tropical fruit (pineapple, grapefruit, and lemon). This reminded a couple of tasters of an amped-up Meursault. Long finish with noticeable new oak. Thick, creamy, and juicy without being over-the-top. This producer really straddles the stylistic boundary between Burgundy and California in a unique and pleasurable way. (4409 views) | | | Tasted by Keith Levenberg on 4/9/2008 & rated 94 points: Rhys and Alesia Spring '08 release dinner (Tabla): This is even better than I thought. Tasted next to the '04 and '06, its breadth is really something to behold. It's not a bigger wine than the others, it just reaches further. Grand cru performance. And the lobster dish really underscored the powerful minerality here, its oceanic scent and briny, chalky aftertaste. (3580 views) | | | Tasted by Keith Levenberg on 3/20/2008 & rated 92 points: Was jonesing a California chardonnay for taco night but didn't have any until the mailman came and brought me some. And the Rhys worked great. What I love about this is that it tastes almost halfway between chardonnay and a grosses gewachs-style riesling, with all the powerful structure that implies - the main word that occurs to me to describe the mouthfeel is crunchy. Looking back to my notes on the preview bottle I tasted of this last year, I see the same word appears - nice to see that this characteristic will stay a feature of this wine. And most of the butteriness that was there last year receded, making this taste even more well-defined and refreshing, especially with its almost lime-like citrus zing brought out by the Tex Mex. (2999 views) | | | Tasted by 5laton on 2/6/2008: Spicy nose with notes of toasty oak, lees, apple pomace. Ripe, sweet spicy apple flavors on the palate with very nice, zingy acidity. This feels bigger and riper than the other vintages here, and a little simpler. Good length. (2780 views) | | | Tasted by PaulH on 2/6/2008 & rated 93 points: Clear and sparking light gold color. Nose shows ripe fruit and acidity/minerality with a bit of spicy oak. The palate is lush, oily and unctuous with good bracing citrus-like acidity. This was my favorite of the four vintages at the tasting, as it showed the best combination of concentration and balance. I didn't note much of the characteristic minerality on the finish, but I took the last of the bottle home and when I tried it three days later, it still showed great balance and this time, had a complex chalky character to the long finish. I'd say "buy this wine" but since there were only 200 bottles made, if you don't already have a bottle, you are probably out of luck. 14.9% alcohol, aged in a (single) one-year old barrel. (3461 views) | | | Tasted by Keith Levenberg on 4/26/2007 & rated 90 points: Constantly evolving through the night. It starts out very buttery but still fresh and spackled with chalk, finishing with a vivid burst of popcorn while remaining so tactile that it renders not just the flavor of the popcorn but also the crackle and crunch. The buttery flavor is actually surprising for a Chardonnay that saw no new oak but the crispness and brightness of the fruit compensated for it. With more time the aromatics took on a saline pungency with a whiff of kerosene as well. This seems to have fatter fruit than the '03 and '04 but it is so bright and fresh. (3343 views) |
| Rhys Producer websiteChardonnay The Chardonnay GrapeAlpine Vineyard On weinlage-infoUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Santa Cruz Mountains Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association | Wikipedia
Once referred to by wine writers as the Chaine d'Or -- or "golden chain" -- the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA sits above Silicon Valley, running along the craggy range next to the Pacific on some of the prettiest parts of Northern California. The area supports more than 75 wineries, despite being limited by geography and high land prices.
In 1981 the Santa Cruz Mountains Viticultural Appellation became federally recognized, one of the first American viticultural areas to be defined by geophysical and climatic factors. The appellation encompasses the Santa Cruz Mountain range, from Half Moon Bay in the north, to Mount Madonna in the south. The east and west boundaries are defined by elevation, extending down to 800 feet in the east and 400 feet in the west. |
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