2021 Rhys "Alpine Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay

“The 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard is so strikingly different from the Horseshoe. It offers tremendous concentration and pure power, a sort of seamless intensity that builds and then carries through to its substantial, resonant finish. Citrus confit, dried flowers, mint and chamomile linger. What a wine. (AG)” (09/2023)

“The texture and length on this bottling, and the fact that it retains as much many days after being opened, is jaw-dropping. The nose begins with soft yet alluring butter, nut, apricot and wet rock aromas. Then the ethereally chalky sip adds crisp stonefruit and apple, wrapped in a lemony acidity that repeatedly engages every part of the palate. (MK)” (11/2023)

“Another spectacular white wine from Rhys, the 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard is a fascinating counterpoint to the Horseshoe bottling. Of the two, the Alpine is the more aromatically dazzling out of the gate, with all manner of herbal, floral, chalky, citrus and orchard fruit aromas immediately jumping from the glass. Texturally, the palate shows a graceful, floating quality that juxtaposes the mid-palate assertiveness of the Horseshoe. The finish is long and spherical, concluding on a distinctive note of spearmint and menthol, with spice notes appearing and building with extended oxygen exposure. This is a fantastic effort all around and one that, as with its somewhat nearby neighbor, should be aged for another five years and eagerly consumed over the next 10. (ML) 96+” (04/2024)

“The golden yellow 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard has an expressive and luxurious nose of lemon balm, custard, wet stones, and candied green apple. Persistent and long, it expands on the back palate, with lemon balm, savory saline, a soft texture, and a great, salty lift on the finish. It's a very persistent yet elegant wine that's going to mature at a slow pace over the next 10-12 years. (AF)” (06/2024)

“The 2021 Chardonnay “Alpine Vineyard” bottling from Jeff Brinkman and the team at Rhys is another lovely wine that is going to demand a bit of bottle age before it starts hitting on all cylinders. The wine comes in at a svelte 12.8 percent octane and offers up a very refined aromatic constellation of apple, pear, white lilies, just a whisper of crème pâtissière, stony minerality, apple blossoms and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and still quite primary, with a lovely core, excellent mineral drive and grip, zesty acids and fine balance on the long, nascently complex and very promising finish. This too needs to some hibernation time in the cellar.” (04/2023)