Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.
This past week included some more of the latest releases from the venerable Rhys Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In the last decade, Rhys has become one of the best producers of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (also Syrah and Sparkling wines) in California.
This week we’re looking at a couple more of their Chardonnays, the standard Santa Cruz Mountains bottling, which is tasty, but also the Alpine Vineyard Chardonnay which is definitely next-level in terms of its flavor and complexity.
A similar story can be told in the Pinot Noirs that I’m reviewing this week, with the standard Santa Cruz Mountains bottling quite pleasing and tasty, but a number of the single vineyard bottlings demonstrating what some of the impressive sites that Rhys farms are capable of. Interestingly, Rhys top wines are usually their black labeled “Hillside” bottlings which represent the steepest, lowest-yielding parts of their mountain vineyards. This week, however, I have to say that for the first time that I can recall, their Skyline Vineyard Pinot Noir outperformed their Horseshoe Hillside Pinot. Of course, both are spectacular, but the 2021 Skyline bottling is definitely one of the best California Pinot Noirs I’ve tasted from the vintage.
The Rhys wines can be tough to get ahold of, but invariably some of them make their way to the secondary market and to some retailers as well. Keep your eyes peeled for the 2021s, as they are truly epic.
Regular readers will recall the recent deep dive I did into Trousseau and Trousseau Gris as part of my tasting coverage for Jancis Robinson’s website. Well, some of the wines I was trying to get my hands on didn’t manage to make my cutoff for that article, so I’m pleased to recommend two Trousseau-Noir-based wines from Matthew Rorick’s, who has gone from finding a spare ton or two of obscure grape varieties all over the state each year to farming an exceptional vineyard in the Sierra Foothills planted with, you guessed it, obscure grape varieties. These two Forlorn Hope wines are very classic in their expression of Trousseau Noir, and have that alpine freshness that you can find in their Jura homeland.
Before we leave the lighter red zone, I’ve also got a lovely Pinot Noir from Oregon’s Tulatin Hills to recommend courtesy of single-vineyard specialist Lavinea.
Now let’s move into slightly more powerful shades of red, shall we? We can finish up this week with three expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon (and related varieties) from Napa Valley. The first, from Baldacci, is a red blend that fits the dominant Napa red mold: big-shouldered, ripe, powerful, and bolstered heavily with new oak. It will doubtless appeal to some, but was a little over the top for me, despite being well-made.
The Flora Springs Trilogy is a well-known flagship wine, though in recent years it has gone through something of a transformation, as Flora Springs sold their Oakville estate and a bunch of their vineyards to Cathiard in 2019. The Komes family has dramatically scaled back production of the brand (by almost 50%) and have revamped their Komes Ranch Vineyard in Rutherford, set up a new winemaking facility and brought in consulting winemaker Mike Smith to work alongside winemaker Enrico Bertoz. So, this is something of a new wine in an old bottle, so to speak. That said, it falls nicely in line with the lush richness that Trilogy lovers have come to expect from the wine.
Lastly, I’m thrilled to recommend the 2021 Cabernet from Larkmead Vineyards, which is a knockout of a wine, offering a wonderfully balanced and poised expression of Cabernet, with just the right combination of power, fruit, and more savory components welded together in a very complete, and compelling package. This is a wine that will go decades in the cellar, and improve for a long portion of that time, despite being delicious right out of the gate.
Notes on all these below.
Tasting Notes
2021 Rhys Vineyards Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Palest gold in the glass, this wine smells of golden apples, lemon pith, and a hint of honeysuckle. In the mouth, bright lemon pith and grapefruit notes mix with a hint of crushed nuts and dried herbs. Excellent acidity and length, with a nice crackling minerality underneath. 13.3% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $45. click to buy.
2021 Rhys Vineyards “Alpine Vineyard” Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Palest gold in the glass, this wine smells of lemon oil and lemon pith, with hints of resin. In the mouth, bright lemon oil and lemon pith flavors crackle with excellent acidity and zing along with hints of pink grapefruit. Fantastic acidity and mineral depth. 12.8% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $130. click to buy.
2021 Rhys Vineyards Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Light to medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of cherries and raspberries. In the mouth, bright cherry fruit mixes with cranberry and raspberry notes as faintly muscular tannins coat the mouth and gradually flex their muscles. Hints of sweet oak emerge as the tannins tighten, but not so much that they overwhelm the fruit. I do think the wine would be better with less new oak, but I expect it to taste more balanced in the years to come. 13.7% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $50. click to buy.
2021 Rhys Vineyards “Family Farm Vineyard” Pinot Noir, San Mateo County, California
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of ripe cherry and raspberry fruit. In the mouth, rich cherry and raspberry fruit is draped in fleecy tannins and juicy with excellent acidity. Orange peel, dried herbs, and dried flowers creep in as the wine finishes long and bright. 14.1% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $60. click to buy.
2021 Rhys Vineyards “Horseshoe Hillside” Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of raspberries and flowers. In the mouth, bright raspberry fruit mixes with cherry and dried herbs, while dried flowers and citrus peel offer grace notes to the crystalline berry qualities. Muscular tannins wrap around the core of fruit, as mouthwatering acidity keeps things zippy. Positively gorgeous. 13.4% alcohol. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $200. click to buy.
2021 Rhys Vineyards “Skyline Vineyard” Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains, California
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of candied raspberries and flowers. In the mouth, the wine is beautifully floral with raspberries and flowers draped in fleecy tannins that flex their muscles over time. Fantastic acidity and crystalline fruit, this is a truly epic wine that will last (and blossom) for a while in the cellar, even if it is quite delicious now. 13.9% alcohol. Score: between 9.5 and 10. Cost: $90. click to buy.
2019 Forlorn Hope “Juresque” Red Blend, Calaveras County, Sierra Foothills, California
Pale ruby in the glass, this wine smells of raspberries, strawberries and dried herbs. In the mouth, wonderfully bright flavors of berries and chopped green herbs mix with a hint of wet earth and dried orange peel. Faint, powdery tannins add some chalkiness to the texture of the wine, and a hint of bitter orange lingers in the finish. A blend of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Trousseau Noir. 12% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $40. click to buy.
2019 Forlorn Hope “ODB” Trousseau Noir, Calaveras County, Sierra Foothills, California
Pale orangey ruby in the glass, this wine smells of wet leaves and strawberries with a hint of dried citrus and wet pavement. In the mouth, dried aromatic herbs, red apple skin, dried apples and fresh strawberries mix under the gauzy haze of ethereal tannins. Excellent acidity. Faintly bitter notes linger in the finish. 12.6% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $35. click to buy.
2021 Lavinea “Tulatin Estate” Pinot Noir, Tulatin Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Light to medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of cherry and raspberry fruit. In the mouth, cherry and cranberry flavors are bright with excellent acidity and juicy with hints of orange peel and dried herbs. Faint tannins brush the edges of the mouth. Very tasty. 13.3% alcohol. Score: around 9. Cost: $78. click to buy.
2021 Baldacci Family Vineyards “Fraternity” Red Blend, Napa Valley, Napa, California
Inky, opaque garnet in the glass, this wine smells of sweet oak and black cherry. In the mouth, sweet oak fights for attention with dark black cherry and blackcurrant flavors. Sweet fruit, sweet oak, dominate the palate and drying tannins start to suck the moisture out of the mouth. Somewhat overdone, but will likely appeal to those who want brawn in their glass. A blend of primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, with a little bit of Petite Verdot and Syrah as well. 14.5% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $60. click to buy.
2021 Flora Springs “Trilogy” Red Blend, Napa Valley, California
Very dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of sweet cherry, blackcurrant, and sweet oak. In the mouth, blueberry and black cherry fruit is ripe and juicy with excellent acidity and the sweet vanilla of new oak. Lightly drying tannins add texture to the wine, as the sweet fruit and sweet oak linger in the finish. Very polished. 14.2% alcohol. Score: around 9. Cost: $80. click to buy.
2021 Larkmeand Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Napa, California
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of bright cherry fruit and a hint of sweet vanilla. In the mouth, beautifully juicy cherry flavors have a bright purity and are wrapped in suede-like muscular tannins. Gorgeous notes of dried herbs and a hint of violets linger in the finish. A spectacular wine. Contains 8% Cabernet Franc. Ages 20 months in 64% new French oak. 14.7% alcohol. 2368 cases made. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $115. click to buy.
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