2022 Rhys "Alpine Vineyard" & "Home Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir Horizontal

“Ever the introvert, at least initially, the 2022 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard opens with a classically shy, inward and coiled nose of turned earth, fresh herbs, black cherries, pomegranates and blood orange rinds. Despite this relatively reticent entrance, it endlessly unfolds and segues into its three-dimensional form, aromatically developing alongside its persistently expansive and definitively exquisite palate. It concludes with a typically weightless finish, adding evermore juicy, plush concentration with time in the glass, with an extremely fine-grained and wide tannin structure. It's a wine of pure class and allure. (ML)” (08/2024)

“From a steep site divided into half-acre tightly spaced blocks, the majority of which is planted to Pinot Noir, 2022 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard is from a site surrounded by redwood and bay trees, which show in up both aromatically and on the palate. Sinewy and savory, this medium-bodied wine exudes soft, silky layers marked by pine resin, leather, and even caramel, the fruit subtle in raspberry and fig. There’s plenty of structure here for aging. (VB)” (04/2025)

“The 2022 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard is a wine for readers who can be patient. In 2022, the Alpine offers a bit more up-front fruit, but it is not too long before its characteristic mineral and savory signatures make an appearance. Taut and beautifully persistent, the 2022 is also quite reticent today. But that's exactly what readers have come to expect here. The long, intensely saline finish is richly evocative of what lies ahead. (BN)” (10/2024)

“The 2022 vintage of Alpine Vineyard pinot noir from Jeff Brinkman and Kevin Harvey is pretty ripe this year, coming in at 13.8 percent alcohol. However, the wine is beautifully pure on both the nose and palate, with the bouquet wafting from the glass in a refined blend of sweet dark berries, black plums, bitter chocolate, stony soil tones, a touch of graphite, woodsmoke, a dollop of sweet stem tones and a deft framing of new oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and complex, with a sappy core of fruit, lovely soil transparency and grip, fine-grained tannins and a long, poised and beautifully balanced finish. This is going to be a dynamite wine once the tannins have softened up properly!” (05/2024)

“This mixes lively sassafras and sweet bay notes with mulled raspberry and black cherry fruit, while dried anise, blood orange and incense add range and detail through the racy finish. An expressive, energetic mountain Pinot Noir. (JM)” (01/2025)

“Fermented with 50% whole clusters and hailing from the oldest vines in the Rhys portfolio, the 2022 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard displays the simultaneous richness yet weightlessness that only vine age can provide. The nose combines juicy, concentrated, red berry compote-like aromas with lifted herbal accents. The palate combines a plush, decadent texture with taut, structured tannins while remaining impressively light on its feet through the intense yet nuanced finish. This wine opened up considerably in the glass, particularly in its tannic structure, suggesting that this will need time in the cellar. (ML) 95+” (08/2024)

“The 2022 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard is a potent, tightly-wound wine. It shows quite a bit of energy and mid-palate presence, and yet the wine comes across as pretty packed and closed in around that core of fruit. Dried leaves, incense, pipe tobacco, brown spice and underbrush notes bring out the darker side of Pinot. There's more whole cluster here than in most of the Pinots, which at least partly explains the wine's reticence at this stage. (BN)” (10/2024)

“The 2022 Home Vineyard bottling of pinot from Rhys Vineyards is also fairly ripe this year, coming in at 13.6 percent octane, but keeping it below the fourteen percent threshold seems to have preserved even a bit more freshness and precision on both the nose and palate in comparison to the Family Farm. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a mix of sweet dark berries, cassis, gamebird, woodsmoke, dark soil tones, cola, brown spices, peonies and a gentle touch of cedary oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and complex, with a juicy core of fruit, ripe, seamless tannins, good soil signature and grip and a long, beautifully balanced and classy finish. This will obviously get more complex with bottle age, but structurally, it is quite accessible at the moment and really quite delicious! 92+” (06/2024)