2017 Rhys Vineyards Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains 750 ml

Ask any critic about the greatest Pinot Noirs of California, and one name is sure to come up: Rhys. Eric Asimov of the New York Times proclaimed Rhys to be “among the best American Pinot Noirs” a decade ago—after just three vintages—and the benchmark winery’s reputation and rarity have only grown since. Jancis Robinson said Rhys produces “some of the most ambitious Pinot Noir being made anywhere in the world,” and Elin McCoy wrote in Bloomberg that Rhys Pinots are “the closest yet to a California version of great Burgundy.” 

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. 

Hailing from a cool, sunny site sheltered from direct ocean influence by a mountaintop ridge, the 2017 Rhys Vineyards Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard boasts layered aromas of black cherry, wild strawberry, loganberry, kola, clove, lavender, allspice, forest floor, and faded violets. The densely concentrated body is packed with tension, as the flavors evolve from black cherry and raspberry to complex anise, dried herbs, California bay, fresh mushrooms, and brilliantly integrated oak. It’s “masculine and mineral-laced” according to Jeb Dunnuck, a gorgeous terroir-driven Pinot showing the density of California fruit and the elegance and sustained finish of a Grand Cru.

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 Pinot 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 Pinot Noir 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. The other site, now the Horseshoe Vineyard, is slightly more protected from direct ocean influence than Alpine (there’s a ridge between the vineyards), and sits on rust-flecked sedimentary shale, which provides low vigor and outstanding drainage. 

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.

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.