Last night I had one of my bottles of 2010 Rhys Swan Terrace Pinot Noir. I believe it is the first of these that I have tried. I have lots of Rhys in my cellar, and so I ask this as someone who really loves their wines. It was bought on release and well stored since in a temp and humidity controlled cellar.
Although the cork was quite crumbly (another win for the Durand), and the wine did not seem oxidized, the fruit was rather overwhelmed by an herbal steminess. It was not an enjoyable bottle.
I assume this was due to some bottle variation, or perhaps it was some effect of oxidation due to the cork that I did not recognize as such.
Anyone have any recent experience with the 2010 ST?
If “recent” includes December 2019, I had one, and it was probably the best Rhys I have had. It did have a lot of green elements: I noted pine and “copious” sous-bois, but obviously not to the extent I considered obnoxious.
I haven’t had the 2010 Swan Terrace, but I’ve had mixed luck with the 2010 Alpine Pinot. One bottle was so unpleasantly vegetal that it was the unanimous second to last in a blind tasting of 20+ Pinot Noirs and was much closer to a simply awful Italian PN in last place than to the wine that was third from last place. Another bottle a few months later was stemmy but not unpleasantly so. Sorry to hear about how your bottle showed but I appreciate the data point.
Swan Terrace has delivered both my most frustrating Rhys experiences (2014, and to a degree the 2012), as well as one of the absolute greatest experiences I have ever had with any new world Pinot Noir (the 2013 last October).
I tasted this wine back in 2019 and also thought it was delicious, although in need of time. Didn’t really get the green notes you had, maybe a bad bottle?
I also have them back to 2007, up through 2018…except for the 2011 and 2015 when apparently they weren’t made.
But I have been sitting on them for the most part, having had only a couple, though I forget which vintages, and they were excellent.
It looks like I have an 09 and a 12 of the Swan. Reading through notes on CT about the 09, it sounds like 2/3rd have a very good experience with it, and 1/3rd find it wanting and often muse about whether maybe they got a bad bottle.
I can’t really tell whether that’s bottle variation, or just the different reactions people may have to a wine, particularly one with a lot of whole cluster, since that kind of clicks with some people and doesn’t with others.
Might as well plan on opening that one this year and see.
Drank a bottle in June 2019 and thought it so great I bought a couple from Benchmark, despite owning a shitload of Rhys pinot already. A second bottle opened six months later was shut down and showing lots of structure albeit quite fragrant. I think you had a bad bottle.
From a technical standpoint, anyone have any idea what would lead to a particular bottle showing a greater degree of steminess…realizing that the wines are made with whole cluster, I believe, but normally this offers a background of complexity rather than a prominent steminess, if that is the word. And whether the dried out “crumbling” cork (despite it being stored on its side since purchase in a 60-65% humidity cellar) could affect this aspect of the wine.
Really just curious.