Here is what was stated in the ‘save the date’ email dated 5/11; “Also please note that our 2014 Hillside Pinot Noirs will be offered in August with priority given to customers purchasing wine this year.”
Stan - Isn’t a minimum order of eight bottles per year pretty much cherry picking? Just asking…
Thanks, Russ.
I suspect Jeff is buying just to Flipp them.
I did get the e-mail and as Larry Sanders used to say, “No flipping.”
PSA: For those who are hesitating to buy because of the long(ish) aging recommendation, it looks like Wine Exchange has some aged bottles available. Looks like there are some 2004s and 2007s.
http://www.winex.com (you can search for Rhys in the search box near the top).
I had my first and only Rhys Pinot in 2016. 2010 Bearwallow. . Took a sip when first (pop and poured ) and took a sip every 15 minutes or so. It was good but didn’t find it anything special/unique about it .
Just ordered a 2012 Bearwallow to try before the ordering window closes. Still young I know, but hopefully I’ll get an idea of the house style.
I think the long aging recommendations were mainly for earlier vintages. Since about 2012, they are wines that aren’t intended for early consumption but are pretty enjoyable when released. Frankly,if you are going to buy older vintages on the secondary market, I’d buy the more recent vintages. They are also more representative of the current style. I don’t think that style will change much since the vineyards are more established and they have learned more about farming them and about individual blocks.
They poured four of the wines released in this offer at their pickup day on Sunday. I would say all of them were showing quite well and I’d be happy to drink any of them tomorrow.
There are lots of wineries and cost is always an issue for most of us, but don’t decide on these based on aging recommendations from some years ago.
-Al
That’s good info, thanks!
You might want to try the other Rhys wines. Bearwallow is a new vineyard for them (2010 was the 3rd vintage) and might not be representative of the rest of the portfolio. Bearwallow is not from the Santa Cruz Mountains…YMMV.
Gotcha, good point. Yeah it comes from Northern California. I won a bet from a friend of mine, and that’s the bottle I grabbed. The good news is he’s got a nice representation of other vintages/vineyards so I am sure I will be drinking them down the road.
I’ve had many, if not most, Rhys pinots since the 2009’s. For me, by far the most expressive have been the 2008 Alesia and the 2009 Santa Cruz (that I had just recently.) Both right now are open and delicious. The vineyard designated wines are very interesting but so much tighter. I believe they must be treated like great wines. Give one a try if you must but cellar the rest.
I had a 2013 Bearwallow Pinot at dinner last night, it was ridiculously good! We drank it beside a 2013 Dominio del Águila Reserva, which is a much different wine, but the Rhys was showing really well over the two hour dinner. The DdAR still need WAY more time to open up (although it was a great wine).
Kevin H. or Jeff B.,
Can you comment further on how you are structuring the Hillsides release coming up next month? I know last year’s FCFS took you by storm and you mentioned doing an allocation program for the 2014’s. Can you share target dates at this point?
Thanks,
Craig,
The 2014 Hillside offer will go out on Aug 8. Instead of “first come first served” (which was a disaster as it sold out in 3 hours and long time customers did not have a chance to order), this time we will have a small group with an allocation of the wines while others will simply wishlist. After the one week ordering period ends, we will fill the wishlist orders with any remaining wine. We anticipate plenty of wine for the wishlisting customers as we are going to be quite careful with the allocations.
Hopefully this system will work better!!
Thanks Kevin. Sounds like a very reasonable approach to me and as always thanks for the world class customer service.
+1
Sounds great. I much prefer a guaranteed allocation, even if its smaller.
I’m a glutton for punishment, but looking forward to this release today. 