TN: 2010 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard

2010 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (6/19/2016)
Two years on since my last bottle, and all I can say is that this is really, really good. I am no Chardonnay guy, and yet I could drink this wine all day long. The mix of fruit and spice is delicious, and the texture is flawless. At cellar temperature it shows fine balance, with plenty of finishing cut. Could it age longer? Of course, but why.

Posted from CellarTracker

Buke, we seem to once again be drinking some similar things again, and I continue to wonder if we may be related. Just wrapping up the Rhys Shoe Chard, having the rest of last night’s bottle as I watch the Olympics.

Like your impression, mine too is favorable. This is really pretty delicious chardonnay.

• 2010 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (8/6/2016)
  My 6th time writing up this wine, and this is my final remaining bottle. Opened yesterday, enjoyed about 3/4s of it, and simply left the remainder in the fridge under cork for the last glass I am finishing today. Perfect temp, not paired now with any food so it’s just me and the glass. Golden colored. Plenty of yellow apple in this wine, along with pineapple and creamy lemon. Zingy lemony aciditiy in the core and finish, along with some minerality. There is some oak here, as it richens the texture some but it does seem to be less a player than I was expecting. I then let the last few ounces warm up to see how any residual oak would show. Some appears, mainly toasty accents. I have to say, this wine is an attention getter. Where I would trot this out is in front of the CA chard drinker who is inclined for the modern style, but who could see past that style into what really good CA chard can look like, with the lemony and mineral notes. This wine kind of gets at both styles, although this bottle lends itself to be in my view more of the progressive, more intense CA chard I prefer, with enough of the CA modern feel I suspect from the remaining oak. Drink window? Hmm, the color makes me wonder and based on how well this is drinking with all the flavors I find, my advice is to drink now, over the next couple years.

Posted from CellarTracker

Thanks for the heads up guys. I have several and have yet to open one. I’ll now rectify that.

This is a very good one!

It’s great to hear that you guys enjoyed this one. We have learned that Horseshoe Chardonnay greatly improves with age. FWIW, my favorite Horseshoe Chard released to date is the 2012.

I would agree with that Kevin! The 2012 is a wonderful Chardonnay…Great fruit, expressive but also subtle and balanced at the same time. Nice job on that one!

We had this in March - similar notes as others. I did find it to be powerful and a really great finish!

But while the 2010 and 2012 are amazing don’t forget the 2011 in there. The vintage may have been lighter overall but both Rhys chardonnays are beautiful wines.

This stumped me blind, badly. Lots of complexity.

Has an umami thing going on.

Very nice wine.

The '12 also convinced me that Rhys makes great Chards. After a recent visit I’ll say that I’m not passing on any of the Chards Rhys makes in the future! And that’s from someone who is not a Chard fan.

Thanks for the note, David. I have some of these sleeping and I may need to wake one up soon.

And based on the '14 Bearwallow Chard I had the opportunity to taste on a recent visit, this is going to be another great Chard site for Ryhs. Kevin, Jeff and Javier appear to be making all the right decisions. Bravo team Rhys!!

I just had the 2012 this past weekend as well (I think the 2nd time I’ve had it this year) and to borrow from Frank Murray’s 2010 note “Zingy lemony aciditiy in the core and finish, along with some minerality.” That really stood out to me. We loved it. I tend to drink what few Cali Chardonnays I have with about this much age (3-4 years) and like them that way but I’m planning on letting these sit a while longer as well to see what happens. I have a couple left.