February 25, 2024 - Medium ruby hue. Aromas and flavors of baking spice, leather, nutmeg, raspberry, rose petal, tar, and vanilla. Medium body and tannins, with high acidity. Soft, rounded, and balanced. Drinking perfectly now.
February 12, 2024 - Notable grapes flavor. Cherry and raspberry. Pleasant light wine
January 26, 2024 - Much improved from the last bottle. Did not decant. Crimson colored with a lot of concentration. Notes of strawberry and blackberry, with rose petal and licorice. Well integrated tannins, and a medium- long finish
May 19, 2023 - Earthy, with sour cherry and dark berries. Dry. Nice acidety. Marzipan and anise. Vanilla exit. Quite nice. BftB 🍷
March 24, 2023 - Really great density and a bit of funk. Wait another year for the final bottle .
March 23, 2023 - Definitely a serious wine. Exceptional concentration, but the darkness overwhelms the desired California sunshine. The seams show on the back palate and especially finish, which appear to be from a different wine - sort of faster, thinner, more aqueous. Not going to get any better, so drink it now.
March 20, 2023 - Gift from a friend for Kokkarifest last November. On the nose and palate, light notes of tart cherries, cranberries, and lesser notes of red currants, strawberries and pomegranates, rose hips, earthy minerality and savoriness, likely from the whole clusters, a Rhys signature. Very light darkening to medium ruby with air, light bodied, medium legs. Medium+ acidity, medium- tannins, absolutely no heat. Fair complexity and persistence, good intensity. Off the pour, this was one of the faintest wines I recall, really needing a searchlight to find tasting and palate notes, but this did fill out with a couple of hours of air, with some nice red fruit and rose notes giving the wine at least a bit of punch. Light and lithe, the acidity gives this lift and made it better as a complement to seared salmon than as a sipping wine. While the occasional big and slightly confected pinot, like KB or at a lower level of ether, Lynmar, can be fun from time, but I do cotton to a more taut and rigorous style more often than not, and some of this producer’s SVDs, particularly the Horseshoe and Alpine, are among my favorite CA pinots. That said, this particular cuvee begs the question of when lean becomes simply emaciated, with just not enough meat on its bones, and in this style, I’ve preferred several of Gavin Chanin’s efforts at around this price point—actually, less at what I paid for them compared to what I’m seeing this go for—to this bottling. The Horseshoe and Alpine seem to love bottle age, almost more like a high end French pinot, and it’s possible that this could improve. But other than the acid being *slightly* too pronounced and having the possibility of integrating better, I’m skeptical. I thought that Rhys made these to drink sooner while those cuvees aged, and more personally, after the imporvement in the bottle after the few hours of air, it had lost what little steam it had by the third night. I’d be unlikely to buy this on my own—and it continues an unfortunate trend of my non-wine friends giving me underperforming bottles—and would encourage others to spend the additional $ to go with the bottlings I mentioned above.
January 10, 2023 - This seems like it’s in a good place. Lots going on with the nose; roses, wild herbs, red berries, soil, something reminiscent of a butcher’s shop.
Acidity is quite high and could probably use another 2-3 years until it totally settles. Fruit is there but not in the foreground, if anything it reads as austere and a touch bitter. This is def better with food.
Good QPR if you can find for sub-$50.
January 6, 2023 - Nice fruit with lots of darker berries and tobacco. Quite sleek with nice high acidity. Need to drink more american PN for sure!
January 6, 2023 - The stuff has finally turned the corner. The oak and strawberry have faded and this is a serviceable Pinot with mild tasting food.