TN: OH Hell YES!!! 2004 Rhys Home Vineyard Pinot Noir

Thanks so all of you who offered your advice regarding this bottle after I found it leaked a bit on our drive to the Isle of Palm just outside of Charleston, SC. Needless to say, it performed flawlessly during our mind-blowing dinner at the Peninsula Grill for my wife’s 30th birthday.

While I was too enamored by my stunning bride to take a formal written note at the table, I offer this from memory.

An utterly gorgeous nose of stunning complexity! This is the type of wine you can wax poetic for hours. A kaleidoscopic melange of raspberry, cranberry, and pomegranate fruit intertwined with roses, a subtle trace of brown sugar at times, and well balanced by a strong earth and mineral interplay. A surgically precise palate captures the nose along with an impeccable balance of its structural components. Soft in the mouth, but some tannins remain and will require more time to integrate fully. I feel this wine is more whole than my last experience with it in April of 2009; that is to say everything seems more melded and less like individual pieces and parts. Finishes pure with a long lasting and lingering impression of its essence. In a word - glorious!

I’ll probably check in on my next bottle in a few years and the rest…well we’ll see. If you have any of these, you are very lucky indeed. Drink now for a whopping dose of pleasure, but if you hold, I do believe you’ll derive even more in some years time. This is but one reason why this is my favorite winery. Kudos to Kevin, Jeff, and the team!

Kevin,

Thanks for following up with a note. It’s a burden always being right.

Sounds like another example of patience being a virtue. I’ve got 2 bottles so I think I’ll continue being patient.

Sounds like a really good wine, thanks for the heads up!

Now to find one to try…

I wonder if the ambiance had any effect on this wine…

I need to start tracking down some Rhys and see what all the fuss is about.

a fair question, but not quite. here is my ct note from a previous bottle enjoyed in my kitchen in april of last year:

5/30/2009: Wowsa! Opened at noon and began to drink 6 hours later. A majestic dark cranberry color complicated by rust colored tones. A whirlwind of complexity on this feminine nose consisting of raspberry, cranberry, and pomegranate fruit supported by fresh cut flowers, eucalyptus, rose pedals, earth, and minerals. And maybe a hint of tobacco and pine needles that wave in and out. The nose continues to evolve as I repeatedly burry my nose in the glass never wanting to ascend for air. One might argue that this supplies yin to the Alpines’ yang. Velvety in the mouth and equally complex. Its intense fruit (do NOT read fruit bomb here) is lifted upon a pedestal of acid with surgical precision. Mild herbaciousness. What I love most about this wine is its intriguing iron-laced minerality. I’ve read about it elsewhere, but to experience it is wonderful. Fully satisfying finish echos the palates’ fruit and minerals. Deftly balanced. Not a trace of alcohol. In a word…stunning!

What can I say? Rhys has risen to become my favorite US producer. From the lower Alesia offering to their flagship wines, I’ve been enamored by the all - this bottle in particular. Well done!

I’m sticking a bottle of Rhys in my car over the weekend to open Sunday night; it sounds like that is the way they show best.