I was on The Rhys bandwagon from the early days, but fell off years ago and don’t really buy the wines. No reason, I appreciate them and what they do, I just don’t do a lot of mailing lists anymore and my consumption of CA pinot is down. That being said, I still have a few bottles, but I don’t drink them enough these days to have expectations or notions of how they should behave. I had this bottle hanging around and took it for a spin.
2007 Rhys Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard- USA, California, San Francisco Bay, San Mateo County (8/26/2019)
The recent notes on CT are a bit all over the place, but lean very positive CT 91.5). I dropped in the decanter for a few minutes just to open it up. The wine showed promise early on. Some tertiary elements, with a background stemmy-smoky note that was appealing. The fruit still feels primary, it is rich and leans black cherry- cola. With air, the wine became somewhat one-dimensional to me, a bit too rich, brooding, and almost what I want to call flabby. The wine seemed totally resolved to me. It may just be a palate preference where I wanted more body, more acid and structure. It didn’t feel like it needed time. My two cents.
Thanks Dennis. Tasted a 2008 Swan last night. Initially very tight and unyielding, but began opening up over a two hour span. Lots of stuffing, not flabby and seeming very young. Will try again tonight.
I just opened my last bottle of the 2008 this weekend. Here’s my notes:
Medium ruby red. Sweet and seductive nose of blueberry, strawberry, cherry, roses. Medium body on the palate with focused acidity, some tannin. Smooth and silky, lots of fruit. Sour cherry, strawberry. Not much on the midpalate and a short finish. This is probably at its peak, but is drinking beautifully.
One followup - air did not help this wine. On the second day, all of the fruit was gone, it became thin and sour, and just, well, dead.
Interesting, Marc. I have about a glass or two remaining from last night. Going to check on it tonight, but not expecting much. Think it has given what it had to give. We’ll see.
The only FF I have left is a couple of 2007 and the last one I opened was in 2/18 so it sounds like I definitely need to open another. FWIW, this has always been my least favorite vineyard.
Based on your note I opened one tonight. Your note is spot on except my bottle has a longer finish than you describe. Delicious now. Because of your second day note we plan on finishing it tonight with dinner.
I’ve never had a Rhys wine that really “needed more time”: they are all so drinkable upon release sucking in that California sun, which is not to say they don’t/won’t age, because they do. The older wines always showed so stemmy and I’ve always wondered how that would resolve.