2016 Rhys Vineyards Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains 750 ml

Ask any critic about the greatest wines of California, and one name is sure to come up: Rhys. 

Led by the vintner Kevin Harvey and winemaker Jeff Brinkman, Rhys is crafted from grapes grown on some of the most stunning, steep, and remote sites on the California coast, and has risen quickly to become one of the great producers on the globe. The vast majority of Rhys wines go to their fervent mailing list, which is why we’re thrilled to alert our top collectors about today’s offer, our very first single-vineyard offering from Rhys’ incomparable Santa Cruz Mountains terroir. 

Sourced from a south-facing vineyard just ten miles from the Pacific, the 2016 Rhys Vineyards Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard presents a subtle nose at first, then opens to aromas of golden apples, poached pear, quince, yellow flowers, toasted marzipan, clove, and vanilla. With its flash of ripe apple and pear fruit supported by bright acidity and accented with saline minerals, brown butter, and toast, the complex interplay of elements and long finish put this Chardonnay in a class by itself. It’s “one of the best whites Rhys has produced to date,” according to Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate—strong praise, as they’ve called Rhys Chardonnays “without doubt among the best being produced in North America.” 

One of the greatest wineries in the world started modestly enough: Kevin Harvey’s love for Pinot Noir inspired him to plant 35 vines behind his home in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, which stand between Silicon Valley and the Pacific. The vines grew to become a quarter acre, producing enough grapes to vinify in the garage. The idea got even bigger. 

Kevin was convinced his Santa Cruz Mountains home near the San Andreas fault—where colliding tectonic plates have surfaced an incredible range of soils—held unlimited potential, so he sought out more sites. Two of his first discoveries were less than a half-mile apart, but worlds away in terroir. One is now the Alpine Vineyard, a rocky site boasting chalky Purisima Formation shale and steep slopes that climb from 1200 to 1500’ of elevation. 

Rhys’s methods are just as remarkable as their sites. In their modern 30,000 foot facility dug into the hillside off of Alpine Road, the harvested fruit is unloaded into a 40-degree room. All grapes are hand-sorted and gravity-fed into small tanks in a painstaking process that ensures that only the very best fruit makes the cut—and then is handled as gently as possible.  

Rhys ferments in one-ton tanks that offer two main benefits: First, they facilitate minute batches of wine that express the vineyards’ varied terroirs. Second, they also allow Rhys to work primitively, crushing grapes by foot and draining the tanks by gravity rather than relying on mechanical methods. This affords the grapes an extremely gentle journey to the barrels. Made out of three- and four-year air-dried French oak, the cooperage is remarkably consistent, and does not impart overwhelming oak—something that’s especially important in the Chardonnay’s long (up to one-year) barrel fermentation. 

This level of care comes together with incomparable terroir to yield wines that have quickly become a phenomenon—and after just two decades, Rhys is just hitting its stride. It’s a winery without limits, and the collectors who claim their bottles today are in for unlimited pleasure.