2016 Rhys "Family Farm Vineyard" & "Home Vineyard" San Mateo County Pinot Noir Horizontal

“Moving south toward the Santa Cruz Mountains, the 2016 Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard offers a more elegant, medium-bodied, supple style as well as perfumed red fruit, dried flowers, and spice, with just a hint of minerality. This site has slightly more clay in the soils and the wine is always one of the more rounded and charming in the lineup.” (02/2019)

“The 2016 Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard is beautifully lifted and precise. Bright red berry fruit and floral notes are nicely layered in a Pinot that speaks to understatement and class. In this range, the Family Farm stands out for its crystalline precision and nuance. All the elements are simply in the right place. The 2016 was done with 15% stems, the least Rhys has used for the Family Farm. (AG)” (08/2018)

“The 2016 Family Farm is a really lovely bottle of Pinot Noir, offering up a wide open and very classy nose of sweet dark berries, bitter chocolate, a touch of pigeon, woodsmoke and a lovely base of dark soil tones. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and generous on the attack, with a fine signature of soil, a good core, moderate tannins and lovely length and grip on they bouncy and complex finish. This svelte bottling comes in at 12.6% octane this year and is just lovely. 92+” (07/2018)

“Like the Bearwallow bottling, the 2016 Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard is quite approachable this year, revealing youthfully reserved but already complex aromas of cherries, sweet soil, raw cocoa, forest floor and subtle peony. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, layered and sappy, with velvety tannins and a juicy, mouthwatering finish. It was vinified with only 15% whole cluster this year. (WK)” (05/2018)

“An elegant, reserved and ultra-pure and fresh nose reluctantly offers up wisps of various red berries, anise, rose petal, lilac and a hint of smoke. The round, delicious and attractively textured medium weight flavors possess a seductive energy while exhibiting very good depth and length on the balanced and dusty finish. While it's clear that there is a firm core of supporting tannins this is a bit more forward and one of the few wines in the range that could actually be enjoyed on the younger side.” (04/2019)

“The deeper colored 2016 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard is more fresh and focused, with a liquid rock-like minerality as well as lots of purple fruits, violets, and forest floor. (JD) 96+” (02/2019)

“One of the many highlights in this range, the 2016 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard is magnificent. Ample, broad and super-expressive, the Home is exceptionally polished. The 100% whole clusters are not at all noticeable. Instead, it is the wine's understatement and total sense of class that carry they day. Ideally, readers should plan on cellaring the Home for at least a few years. Even in the early going though, it is quite special. (AG)” (08/2018)

“The 2016 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard reveals a deep-pitched bouquet of plummy fruit, raw cocoa, potpourri, cinnamon and nutmeg. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, tense and chalky, with a fine-grained but tight-knit chassis of tannins and a long, sappy finish. (WK) 93+” (05/2018)

“A cool and restrained but beautifully perfumed nose once again combines plenty of floral elements with those of pretty red berries, spice and a hint of anise. The mouth coating, vibrant and notably rich medium-bodied flavors that possess excellent volume along with focused power and punch on the complex, persistent and harmonious finish. The supporting tannins are sufficiently pliant that this should be a wine that can both drink well young but age effortlessly well too thanks to its impeccable balance.” (04/2019)

“The 2016 Home Vineyard bottling from Rhys is also a fine wine in the making, but this is a touch lower in alcohol than the Family Farm (12.3 percent) and is a bit more tightly-knit out of the blocks as a result. The bouquet is beautifully precise and nascently complex, wafting from the glass in a black fruity mix of cassis, dark berries, espresso, a hint of graphite, a lovely base of dark soil tones and a bit of bonfire in the upper register. On the palate the wine is fullish, pure and still fairly primary, with lovely intensity of flavor, refined tannins, tangy acids and lovey focus and grip on the long and classy finish. While I would not feel guilty about drinking another bottle of Family Farm tomorrow, the Home Vineyard bottling in 2016 really deserves at least a few more years in the cellar to properly blossom. (JG) 92+” (08/2018)