ATLANTA DOES RHYS - Aria, Atlanta, GA (5/2/2017)
When Don Cornutt asked if I was interested in joining in another Rhys dinner at Aria, I didn’t hesitate. Eight of us gathered at Aria, one of Atlanta’s best restaurants, with a selection of wines from our cellars chosen with guidance from Kevin Harvey. I really enjoy these kinds of mini-vertical tastings, as I find that I get a much better understanding of a vineyard’s character after tasting multiple vintages together.
I can’t praise the food and service enough. Don worked with GM and Wine Director Andres Loaiza and Chef/Owner Gerry Klaskala to put together a delicious seven course tasting menu to complement the wines which exceeded the lofty expectations, as did the brilliantly well-coordinated service. Combine great food, great wine, great service, and great company, and you get an incredibly memorable evening.
Horseshoe Chardonnay with Chilled Maine Lobster
We opened with three vintages of Horseshoe Vineyard Chardonnay to accompany a refreshing salad of chilled Maine lobster, green apple, and fennel mixed with a creamy lime-tarragon vinaigrette. The 2011 was a bit of an outlier, and I liked it better than did most of the rest of the group. My sense from this and from prior tastings is that the Horseshoe Chardonnay is a little more exuberant and tropical than the more stately and restrained Alpine bottlings, but it is still more elegant and nuanced than most California Chardonnays.
2011 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Meyer lemon and minerals, with great acidic zing. With air, the acid seemed to fade and it lost some of its freshness and zip. I liked it more than the rest of the group. (91 pts.)
2012 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Lemon and stone, with refreshing acidity. Still very young. (92 pts.)
2013 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
A little matchstick, lemon, slate, nice richness but well-endowed with acidity. Also very young. Just a little more complex and deeper than the 2012. (93 pts.)
Alpine Chardonnay with Pan Seared Scallops
The next flight featured three older vintages of Alpine Vineyard Chardonnay with an intoxicating dish of pan seared scallops with avocado slices, supremes of orange and grapefruit, and a three citrus ponzu. The salinity of the perfectly cooked scallops, richness of the avocado, and sweet/tart citrus paired very well with the flight. The 2009 was the outlier in this group, while my last bottle of 2007 was a show stopper. Curse me for not taking my full allocations of Chardonnay in the early years before I realized how great they are.
2007 Rhys Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Wonderful complexity, nimble and subtle and finely balanced, it is excellent now but has a bright future left. (94 pts.)
2008 Rhys Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
A little fuller bodied and showing more wood than the 2007, but still terrific, with nice minerality and nuance. (93 pts.)
2009 Rhys Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Riper than the 2007 and 2008, with more tangerine fruit than the lemon that the earlier vintages showed, and not as much minerality, taut acidity, or depth. It’s still a very nice wine, but was overshadowed by its older siblings tonight and I don’t think it will have as long a life as they will. (91 pts.)
Bearwallow Pinot Noir with Cured Pekin Duck Ham
We switched to reds for the third flight and an arugula and endive salad with pine nuts, thin slices of Pekin duck ham, and a strawberry vinaigrette which marked the first of three consecutive duck courses. The duck was similar to prosciutto, and the salad worked with the wines. Bearwallow probably has the most distinctive character of the Rhys single vineyards, with a dark fruit and spiciness unlike any of the others. I’m also becoming more and more enamored with it as each vintages seems to be better than the one before it.
2010 Rhys Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
All of the Bearwallows showed a similar profile of dark fruit married well with baking spices that remind me of a blackberry cobbler but without the sweetness, though the 2010 showed more spicy plum and a little tomato skin. The 2010 was also a little less focused and more muddled, and could use a little more structure. Very nice on its own, but overshadowed by the 2012 and 2013. (90 pts.)
2012 Rhys Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
The 2010, 2012, and 2013 Bearwallows share a very similar profile of a fruit cobbler where the rich dark fruit and spices meld together seamlessly. The 2012 showed surprisingly stout tannin after the less structured 2010, and the added structure really helped the nuances of the wine to show through. (92 pts.)
2013 Rhys Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
The 2010, 2012, and 2013 Bearwallows share a very similar profile of a fruit cobbler where the rich dark fruit and spices meld together seamlessly. The 2013 is very similar to the 2012, but with even more class and nuance, in part because of even brighter acidity. So easy to drink but with so much left to offer. Rhys is really dialing in their winemaking in general, but particularly with the Bearwallow Pinot Noir. For those who were put off by the earlier vintages and have been passing on the Bearwallow, you should give it another try. It offers a very different character than the other vineyards, which is what you should expect from such a geographically and geologically different location, but the most recent vintages are sensational. (93 pts.)
A 2006 Horizontal with Slow-Braised Muscovy Duck
This was intended to be a 2006 Alpine horizontal, but because of an inventory management issue we had a Home Vineyard instead of a Swan Terrace. I don’t think I’ve had the 2006 Home before, so I wasn’t concerned at all. The wines worked well with what was probably my favorite course of the night, a slow-braised Muscovy duck sauce with pappardelle and Parmagiano-Reggiano. The regular 2006 Alpine stole the show with this flight.
2006 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Drinking incredibly well, dark fruit with a little spice and just a touch of menthol, framed well by ripe tannin and focused by well-integrated acidity. It still has a lot of upside but you won’t regret drinking it now. (94 pts.)
2006 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Hillside - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
A little blocky and monolithic compared to the regular 2006, with some licorice, and it surprisingly shows a little heat with air, it needs more time more than anything. (90 pts.)
2006 Rhys Pinot Noir Home Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay
Red fruit with a little spice, at the moment it’s a little diluted in the middle and lacks enough tannic or acidic structure to give the fruit the support it needs to shine. I’m not sure whether it is in a dumb stage, fading, or if my taste buds were just blown out by the much more intense 2006 Alpine Hillside. Not bad at all but not up to the competition tonight. (89 pts.)
Alpine Pinot Noir with Roasted Breast of Roan Duck
There were mixed results from this flight, though the dish of a roasted Roan duck breast with baby spinach, roasted shallots, and natural jus was another standout with perfectly rendered skin.
2007 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Still tight and stemmy, but with enough bright fruit on the back to suggest that it just needs a lot more time for everything to come together. (88 pts.)
2009 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Well rounded ripe fruit with a bit of spice and menthol, it is very approachable and is just terrific now, though I don’t expect it to fade any time soon. (94 pts.)
2010 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Showing a lot of stems, not bad but it is in kind of a rough place now where the fruit is having a hard time integrating with the stems. Much better than a bottle tasted a few months ago that was downright unpleasant and overwhelmed by vegetal character, this bottle gives me hope that the fruit is slumbering and that it just needs time to come together. (90 pts.)
2014 Pinot Noirs with Berkshire Pork Rack
The final savory flight featured a pairing of 2014 Alpine Vineyard and Bearwallow Vineyard Pinot Noirs paired with a Berkshire pork rack from Southeast Family Farms with young carrots, tokyo turnips, pearl onions, snow peas, and a grainy mustard sauce. Both wines were lighter and more translucent than any of the other Pinot Noirs, showing great concentration and acidic zip without being heavy which made for a great pairing with a more intense dish. I’m very excited to see how these evolve, but they are so delicious that it is going to be hard to keep my hands off of them.
2014 Rhys Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard - USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley
More elegant and approachable than the 2012 or 2013, with the trademark spice but with more of a reddish tinge to the fruit. Really lovely, fresh, bright, and very hard not to keep drinking. (93 pts.)
2014 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains
Much more approachable than earlier vintages, with translucent fruit, less obvious stem character, and a real brightness from the acidity, showing great concentration without being burdened by excess extraction. Brilliant. (94 pts.)
Dessert
We concluded with a tasty assortment of chocolate-hazelnut cookies, fruit and nut nougat, and brown sugar-nut bars, which was a great way to end the meal.
