Community Tasting Notes 19

• Gnome Likes this wine: 94 points

  September 9, 2022 - Tasted side by side with the 2013 Rhys Alpine Pinot, over two days. Beautiful nose took a bit to open but then was rich and full. Smooth, mouthcoating and rich on the palate, nice secondary flavors and complexity. Fruit, some mushrooms, spice, all kinds of things going on. Medium long finish. My better half loved it too. Started buying Rhys recently, a little worried that this indicates I shouldn't touch them for 15 years!

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• Burgundy Al wrote: 90 points

  September 29, 2021 - My last bottle. As good as my previous bottle in 2019, but less confusing. Ripe black fruit with lots of whole cluster spice and perhaps a bit too much new oak. Still nicely fresh. Very good weight and length.

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• Burgundy Al wrote: 90 points

  December 19, 2019 - I haven't revisited this wine in a decade+ (this is my 2nd of three purchased from the winery upon release), and am both impressed and confused. This comes across as very rich and ripe, starting out seemingly dense but then somehow/ oddly thinning out towards the middle. I truly like the richness and shocking freshness for its age. Less thrilled with some protruding new oak, sweetness (there is no way this fermented bone dry) and the way if lost weight with air/ time. but I think this has to be from young vines, so that lack of density should be expected. Overall, very good, but I am perplexed by whether I should drink up my final bottle soon or see where it evolves in another 5-10 years. Lethargy will most likely take me towards the latter.

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• Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 93 points

  September 2, 2017 - Just filled the bins in the cellar, and the Rhys stash occupied two bins plus one extraneous loose bottle. So obviously one of them had to be opened. From the first commercially released vintage, this is now the oldest Rhys I've had, and it is aging very well. It still has a bead of CO2 that needs to be shaken off in the decanter (don't shake the bottle as the bottom centimeter was thick with sediment). Then it features fresh, crunchy fruit with a snap of cranberry, almost gamay-like, which is pretty remarkable for something 10+ years in the bottle. Age has softened the edges (once that CO2 shakes out) and added some deeper earthy flavors at the low end of the register - think sassafras bark, carob chips - but the fruit is only slightly bricked and the tertiary flavors are for the most part playing along with the vibrant fruit instead of having replaced it. There's nothing to give this away as a heat-wave vintage.

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• floydtp wrote: 91 points

  May 3, 2013 - Opened as an undeclared bottle before dinner at a CellarTracker offline. Didn't take detailed notes but remember it showing heavily on the dark side of the fruit spectrum with some spice (typical of Alpine) Medium length finish and within its drinking window. This was one of the oldest Rhys I have had and didn't dig it too much but then again I think I am starting to realized that Alpine isn't my favorite of the Rhys properties.

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Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2004
• Type Red
• Producer Rhys
• Varietal Pinot Noir
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Alpine Vineyard
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Santa Cruz Mountains
• Appellation Santa Cruz Mountains

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 45 (46%)
• Consumed 53 (54%)

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