2021 Rhys Vineyards Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard Anderson Valley 750 ml


$90	0% off	per bottle

quantity: 1

Shipping included on orders $150+.

The Story

Antonio Galloni of Vinous called the 2021 Rhys wines “off the charts,” and gave the ‘21 Bearwallow Pinot a 96-point score that puts it with California’s best. From a winery that comes up whenever someone evokes the greatest Pinot Noirs of California—Elin McCoy wrote in Bloomberg that Rhys Pinots are “the closest yet to a California version of great Burgundy.” $90 per bottle—it’s a world-class bottle for your cellar.

Read the full story
Wine Facts
- Fruit Intensity
- Oak Intensity
- Body
- Acidity
- Tannin
- ABV 13.90%
- 1 hour
- Now - 2035
- % Pinot Noir
- Serving temperature - 58°
- Cork
Wine Access Tasting Note

Medium ruby with a dark core. Black cherry, wild strawberry, loganberry, kola nut, lavender, allspice, forest floor, and soft violets on first impression. As the wine opens, it reveals more spice and earth, which match the intensity of the dark berries. It’s rich and layered on the palate, built on delicate tannins, and it shows the triumphant balance that world-class Pinot Noir strives for. Lingering notes of tobacco and crushed minerals on the finish. Drink now–2035.
Food Pairings
- White Meat
- Red Meat
Critic Reviews

96 pts

Vinous

The 2021 Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard is a powerful, somber wine in its first impression. Black fruit, spice, tobacco, charcoal embers and graphite infuse the 2021 with tons of gravitas. A Pinot of imposing depth and structure, the Bearwallow is incredibly impressive in the early going. Extended aeration brings out the wine's inner sweetness and perfume, along with a more refined dimension that is not apparent initially. The Anderson Valley Pinots have always played second fiddle to the Santa Cruz Mountains bottlings within this range, but that is starting to change.

Curated by unrivaled experts
Choose your delivery date
Temperature controlled shipping options
Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

The Rhys name comes up whenever someone evokes the greatest Pinot Noirs of California. Eric Asimov of the New York Times proclaimed Rhys to be “among the best American Pinot Noirs” over a decade ago—after just three vintages—and their reputation and rarity have only grown since. Elin McCoy wrote in Bloomberg that Rhys Pinots are “the closest yet to a California version of great Burgundy.”

Rhys founder Kevin Harvey 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 planted it to vine, then sought out more sites. And although most of Rhys’s stunning, steep, and remote vineyards are in the Santa Cruz Mountains, they’ve long relied on Anderson Valley’s Bearwallow Vineyard for one of their most recognizable single-vineyard wines.

The vines at Bearwallow include six acres planted in 2000—eight years before Rhys purchased it—and 25 more, planted shortly after the acquisition. The parcel is extremely steep, and rich in complex Bearwallow-Wolfey soils.

Rhys ferments their wines in one-ton tanks, which offers two main benefits: First, it facilitates minute batches of wine that express the vineyards’ varied terroirs. Second, it allows 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.

You might also like these wines

2021 Rhys Vineyards Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard Anderson Valley quantity: 1