Brandon, the 2011 Bearwallow is 35% whole cluster.
Rama you should be receiving an email from us, if you haven’t already. Just a bug.
Combing over the release, my allocation and the newsletter. Interesting breakdown from the newsletter:
Our estate production totaled about 25% of normal with the following breakdown by bottling, shown as a percentage compared to normal:
Alpine Vineyard Chardonnay 25%
Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir 8%
Swan Terrace 0%
Horseshoe Vineyard Pinot Noir 15%
Horseshoe Vineyard Chardonnay 20%
Horseshoe Vineyard Syrah 40%
Skyline Vineyard Pinot Noir 60%
Skyline Vineyard Syrah 100%
Home Vineyard Pinot Noir 100%
Bearwallow Vineyard Pinot Noir 100%
Family Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir 30%
Understandable about the allocations, but really bummed. Find it odd my allocation of Home went down when production seemingly was 100%. Started buying w/ 07 vintage, and now allocated 2x FF, 1x Home and 6x Bearwallow. I don’t want Bearwallow but I guess I’d be forced to buy just to be able to ship (4 bottle min).
I took 3 Bearwallow (was offered 6), 2 FF, and 1 Home. I wishlisted 6 more (1 Alpine Chard, 2 Horseshoe Chard, 1 Alpine PN, 1 Horseshoe PN and 1 Skyline PN). I’d love to get the full case, but I know there is basically zero chance of that. I figure I might be able to score 2 bottles from the wishlist, but I really want to get at least one of the chards.
Got it now, thanks Jeff.
To add another data point, I am in the same boat a Mike and got the same allocation, and am very grateful as I was actually expecting less given the ridiculously low yields. I started out in 2006/2007 being offered only 2 Rhys estate wines ('04 FF) in the first four offers, during which I bought 30 bottles of Alesia. I’ve bought heavily every release since. No disrespect, but we should all be happy to get anything given the circumstances. I too am happy to see Kevin & company spread the wine around. It’s taken some tweaking over the years but I think they’ve got about one of, if not the, best allocation/ordering systems out there.
cheers,
scott
If you ever decide to sell returned '09 FF bottles at a discount let me know. I’d be willing to take a roll of the dice given how good the good bottles have been.
Yes, only FF and Bearwallow. I’ve been a sporadic buyer since the very first release.
Count me in as being quite surprised at the low allocations (no chards!?!) but with a baby on the way and upcoming deployment, it’s probably for the best. I’ll eagerly await next year.
Interesting that I didn’t get an email but got a save the date. Allocation was there and super easy to order as usual.
Same here; first order (of Alesia) was January 2008 and now I was offered the allocation above.
I am always all-in on the Chardonnays and added a single bottle of Home, Horseshoe, and Alpine PN, and I wishlisted a Syrah. Left all the Bearwallow and Family Farm on the table so I can afford to go all-in on the larger Chardonnay allocations coming up. Tough to pass on FF and would have thrown down on a Skyline if offered, but the 6 or 7 bottles I’ll end up with from this release are fine, as that’s about as many Rhys bottles as I have consume in a calendar year.
Thinking about this more, I imagine that the kind of line drawing that Kevin and the team had to do for this release must have been pretty brutal for them, even having given lots of warning that allocations would be down. I suspect that they will enjoy the 2012 and 2013 allocation a lot more. I wonder if they may not be in for more bitter reactions, though as it is harder for some to understand that they still can’t necessarily get everything they want when there is a sense of abundance.
I’ve been getting 4-6 Alpine Pinots for 4 years now, but got allocated one. Stuff happens, especially when nature’s involved. Looking forward to greater allocations soon. Real soon. Like this Fall.
Most people on the list already have 2012s in 375mls, Mags, or 3Ls. 
Yep, I kinda forgot I got a head start on the 2012s. Thanks for the reminder, Mark.
I am going to sit this one out. I’ll miss the pick up party, but more for everyone else. I double down on the next round.
Was looking forward to grabbing some Rhys finally after having gotten an offer from their Alesia wines saying if I purchased there I would be added to the list grin. I was happy to see an offer, but bummed to see it was a 4 bottle min purchase and being only offered the Bearwallow wines I was a bit stumped at what to do. Any advice from those who’ve had either Bearwallow or other wines what one might do here? I did contact them to ask about the min purchase and to see if I could get some other wines to make the 4 bottle min purchase.
To me, the 2011’s are exceptional. What’s more, part of what I like (with any domestic or foreign producer) is to follow particular wines through different vintages, and 2011 is a vintage where Rhys made some unique wines within their style because of the cooler weather. I’d prefer to buy 2011 and less 2012, rather than no 2011 and more 2012. Nobody is going to get many of the 2011’s, except for the Bearwallow, but it’s just my personal preference to follow wines through the vintage variations (but, especially in a vintage that produced very nice wines).
-Al
I didn’t need to hear this.
(Al, any particular ones that you really liked?)
Lol, these threads crack me up. I just hit the little buy all wish list all buttons, hit submit and wait to see what shows up…kind of like Christmas morning.
I agree. I think it’s unforgivable that they allocated me wine when they should know that I’ll buy it even when I have no more storage! They should be more considerate and … wait. Bitter over allocations being down? Never mind.
I’m finding all this angst over small allocations to be more than a little silly. They had a very low produciton in 2011, and are trying to get something to everyone who was already on the list. That necessitates reduced allocaitons. They cannot just make more 2011 because people are unhappy with 1 or 2 bottle allocations.
As for the new folks who got Bearwallow - go for it. Bearwallow is a fine site and Rhys makes really good wine from it. If you search around you will find people saying good things about it and less than good things about it. Search some more and you will see the same about Horseshoe, Alpine and Family Farm. Some folks prefer what one vineyard gives over another. Yes Home and Skyline are often put in a slightly higher tier, but there’s precious little of either to go around, so it’s not happening for new folks (I have been on since 2006 and got no Skyline this time - I will most certainly live!).