Community Tasting Notes 160

• Fisk15 wrote: 85 points

  November 29, 2021 - Deep golden color, toasty oak and advanced fruit notes. Cellared since release with good cork, I just prefer these with a little less age on them.

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• jkscully Likes this wine:

  November 13, 2021 - Green apples, Hawthorne fruit, fresh figs, and peaches with honey, butterscotch, and brown butter. I’m getting some tropical flavors too and lots of minerals. Orange acidity on the long finish. This has the honeyed texture of aged Chardonnay, but it still has power and feels youthful and vibrant in the mouth. Feels like a Chablis Grand Cru but with California fruit.
  
  I think that I might have preferred it a little younger, but this wine was still very good. I’ve been impressed with every bottle of Santa Cruz chardonnay that I’ve tried. This needed about 25 minutes of air to hit its stride and best in Chablis glass.
  
  This was a fantastic match with Sweet Potato Galette with Egg on top. The runny egg yolk, creamy sweet potato, and crust with buckwheat and buttermilk were just the right thing with this. It was a good match with Mackerel with Beet and Orange salsa too. Also nice to drink on its own.

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• I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 94 points

  September 25, 2021 - Open THAT Bottle - at Dan's!: This was drinking surprisingly well! The color was a deep golden yellow, which initially gave me pause that the wine might be over the hill, but it was actually drinking extremely well! Lots of pear, some Meyers Lemon, with a touch of toasted oak and red apple. Also showed some minerality and butter notes, and some smoked gouda notes. There were also some slight reductive notes, but I thought these complimented the wine more than detracted from it. I cannot see this wine improving, but it is certainly drinking well now! I would drink within the next year or so. 93-94 and a very enjoyable CA Chardonnay!

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• galewskj wrote: 94 points

  September 22, 2021 - Open that bottle (Dan's): Pop and pour. The color is golden yellow, darker but not concerning for the age. The palate has butterscotch, a touch of sherry/oxidation, golden fruit, and plenty of acid. The oak is well-integrated. There's no way someone would think this is Burgundy, it's a California profile that is not over the top and has aged very well. I'll drink my last bottle by the end of next year.

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• UMRich wrote: 85 points

  May 6, 2021 - Noted that last bottle was fully mature and really liked it (93); this one seems over the hill. Even darker, none of the tropical fruit notes as it veers into oxidized range. Scoring it rather than indicating it's flawed but that's a judgment call. Since the prior bottle in September was also getting a deep golden color but still had enough fruit and vibrancy, I'm assuming this is the extra 8 months plus normal range of bottle variation instead of a flawed bottle that is completely unrrepresentative. Still gave it 85 because some richness was still there and wasn't at the pour out level. Interestingly, I've noticed that many of my older Rhys Chards have protruding capsules and corks soaked through (have not seen that on ANY other bottle in my cellar), but this one actually looked pristine.

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Pro Reviews 3

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2010
• Type White
• Producer Rhys
• Varietal Chardonnay
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Horseshoe Vineyard
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Santa Cruz Mountains
• Appellation Santa Cruz Mountains

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 40 (2%)
• In Cellars 545 (31%)
• Consumed 1,146 (66%)

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