2012 Rhys Pinot Noir Swan Terrace

Community Tasting Notes (39) Avg Score: 92.9 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View sfwinelover1's profile
  • Report Issue

  2/1/2024 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  First of 2 ($71.50) from a recent auction purchase. On the nose and palate, tart red cherries, cranberries, strawberries, red and black raspberries and pomegranate (where on earth are people, the pros in particular, getting all those black fruits?), dry earth, mixed spice bouquet, saline, forest floor, juniper and black tea. Medium garnet, medioum to full bodied, medium to thick legs. Robust acidity, integrating and dropping off considerably on night 2, medium- tannins, not a touch of heat. VG complexity, persistence and intensity. My love/ambivalent relationship with Rhys continues, with this wine more in the latter than former category. With some air, the red fruit turned from tart to borderline to sour before balancing out after a couple of hours, and the wine took on an appealing, classic Rhys funky, earthy savoriness. Not unlike the preceding Abreu, this lost a bit of energy as it balanced on the second night. Good on its own, this was better still accompanying mixed grill. At their best, Rhys’s pinots, with probably my favorite being the Horseshoe of this vintage which I had about a year ago, can be rigorous, lithe, elegant and Volnay-like; the less successful examples have these traits, but with, for my tastes, an asceticism that can border on astringency (even if they seem antidotal for the 14.5-15% abv baking spice RRV pinots). A bit more generosity here, with a fruit profile that matched the secondary notes more closely, could have elevated this a step or two above where I found it. The tightness on opening might indicate that this hasn’t hit peak drinking window, but the fading of intensity on night 2 seems to indicate the opposite, so I’m more in the mind of mindmuse and wine_poohbah saying drink sooner than later. At significantly less than what I paid, I’ve had numerous pinots I’ve liked at least as much. 91-92

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Wine_Poobah's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/30/2023 - Wine_Poobah wrote: 93 Points

  Dusty Pinot Noir aroma. Red fruit, dried flowers, earth / underbrush. Rich red fruit flavor with a green tea finish. Syrupy fruit profile. Notes of cashews? Goes down easy but not that complex.
  
  I don’t see this improving much more as the fruit is fading. Drink soon.

  2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Beezc's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/25/2023 - Beezc Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Soft, beautiful wine.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Burgundy Al's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/5/2023 - Burgundy Al wrote: 90 Points

  Wonderfully fresh and rich black berries throughout with very good depth and concentration. Spice notes are just a little too dominant, with a heavy hand of whole cluster that hasn't fully harmonized.

  4 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View MindMuse's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/4/2023 - MindMuse wrote:

  A letdown. Aromatically led by stemminess with some soft cherry and underbrush. Flavorwise it is palatable, but lacking depth, complexity, or concentration. Was the fruit ripe enough? Opened a little over an hour but then stalled. Vexing.

  3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

View all 39 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.