For me, these are great wines and worth the tariff. Ordering.
The chardonnays are both $79. This price includes shipping.
I enjoy their wines but I just have too much wine and had to pass. Very good wines, having to order a minimum made it tough too. Sometimes I don’t have enough money to go around and need to just order one bottle but understand the economics behind it 
Bought a little of everything except Swan Terrace. I do not know if on the margin this bottling price is justified given the increasing quality of the Alpine PN. Perhaps makes sense to skip it and jump to the hillsides. Price wise, everything is relative. There are at least 5 threads of 200+ cabs releases.
Sounds reasonable to me if you love the wine.
I’m in. The Rhys chardonnays are still cheaper than the best Sonoma chards (PM, Aubert, Kistler) that are all $100 on release. They also quite a bit different from those offerings. And, the pinots are the best California has to offer (imo) and their non-hillside releases are even slightly cheaper than the best Oregon pinots. Great thing about Rhys is they have a lot of different price points and everything is very high quality.
I don’t find the Rhys Chardonnays to be overpriced, but they are a touch more (about $15) than Ramey (my favorite).
oy … took a first stab at a conservative order and it ended-up being 13 bottles and more money than I want to spend; will have to find a way to cull a bit.
Rhys is becoming a difficult thing for me to figure out:
On one hand, prices continue to increase; but they are fairly-priced. They are now priced in-line with some darn-good Burgs.
I’m going to have upwards of 20 cases of these wines by the time ANY of them might be entering their Prime Drink Window; not so sure how wise that is.
I think the wines are excellent, so I want to keep buying. At some point, I may cut the cord (and will probably feel great when I do), but I really want to see what these turn into when mature — if they end-up as good as I believe they will, then I won’t want to jump ship.
Maybe I’ll start going every-other-vintage with some of these bottlings.
How long should these lay down before they hit their window? My first offer so I can get the Alpine PN, both Horseshoes and the Family Farm PN.
That’s a question Kevin or Jeff will be able to answer much better than I, but having tasted all of the wines last year I will be putting mine away for a minimum of 6-8 years.
FWIW, this offer is the heart of the Rhys wines for me. I’ve passed on almost every offer so far this year, but will be grimacing and pulling the trigger on this one.
No one knows for sure, but someone can give you an idea. Mr. Murray?
At this point, all I can say with certainty is, More than 10 years. And that’s fine— in fact, for me, it’s preferred. Thing is, my current guess is they’ll need 20+. Hell , I’ll probably have 40+ cases by then … need to start drinking these on the “too young” side … but that seems stupid … argh!!
Alpine and Horsehoe PN for me. I love these wines. For a while I tried to buy some of every Cru but clearly not sustainable. How long to age? Depends on vintage and vineyard, but most are pretty attractive after 6-8 years. Swan, Skyline, Hillsides … time will tell.
2 each of the Alpine and Horseshoe offerings.
And I don’t/won’t buy those either. 
Hi Mark,
That’s always a tough question to answer because everyone’s palate is different and we all react to tannin and structure differently. Having said that, I think that people are going to find the 2016s to be very elegant and aromatic wines with a more middleweight structure. They don’t have the massive concentration of the 15s or the structure of the 14s. They remind me a bit of the 2013s but with better acidity and maybe slightly more structure. Honestly you could drink Alpine or Horseshoe today but if pressed I’d say the conservative window is 6-10 years. I usually recommend if people are buying multiple bottles to open one and calibrate your palate.
Fwiw, my perspective on these from tasting the last year.
-
2016 Rhys Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (7/25/2018)
July 2018 Rhys Visit–Taste The 2016s (Rhys Estate (At The Winery)): Lightly smoky, flint and a distinct jasmine flower (I drink a fair amount of jasmine green tea and I found this sweet, floral aspect). Also here was what I thought was a little bit of an oily note in the texture with an intense yellow/green apple, light pineapple and a spicy long finish of green apple skin. My last 2 words in my notes say “seductive” and “gorgeous”. Beautiful stuff and Alpine reigns king again for me. -
2016 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (7/25/2018)
July 2018 Rhys Visit–Taste The 2016s (Rhys Estate (At The Winery)): Spicy green apple which my notes say is ‘prominent’, as one would find in cutting one fresh and tasting the crisp flesh. Lime, a flinty core and lots of cut with bright acid and orange oil. For what it’s worth, I thought this bottle started off shut down and kind of flat when we first had it in the glass but with air, it was allowed to unfold. -
2016 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (7/25/2018)
July 2018 Rhys Visit–Taste The 2016s (Rhys Estate (At The Winery)): Initially, seemed a little reduced to me in the glass but it blew off with air. The bouquet is fragrant (30% whole cluster) and the core of the wine has an intense, concentrated pomegranate that is rich, along with red cherry. The richness here is a pure red-fruited flavor that is sexy yet not cloying. Delicious. -
2016 Rhys Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, San Mateo County (7/25/2018)
July 2018 Rhys Visit–Taste The 2016s (Rhys Estate (At The Winery)): Plush and round, and I found this to be open-knitted and easy to enjoy. Juicy red fruit with a plum flesh, a little bit of cedar and then a plum skin note in the finish. Delicious. -
2016 Rhys Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (7/25/2018)
July 2018 Rhys Visit–Taste The 2016s (Rhys Estate (At The Winery)): Gamey, smokey aromatic with some pepper but let’s get it out of the way that this is totally destemmed. I don’t want anyone running off into the ether and thinking it’s stem, stem. Dark red fruit that shows a depth, supporting acidity, kiwi and reminds me of the fruit character of the 2016 Bearwallow. Not sure I have found red apple in 'Shoe before but it was in this bottle plus strawberry and finishing spice. Fantastic wine, and also has my big star in my notes, of my top 3 wines of the whole day, along with the 2016 Skyline and 2016 Alesia AV PN. -
2016 Rhys Pinot Noir Swan Terrace - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (7/25/2018)
July 2018 Rhys Visit–Taste The 2016s (Rhys Estate (At The Winery)): This was poured next to the 2016 Alpine so we could do a side-by-side. The color on the Swan is darker. 100% whole cluster and it emits a bit of that quality in prickly, stem note in the aromatic. Pomegranate, cherry, lots of primary fruit, reminding of a wine that is more like a barrel sample, full of fruit, power and youthfulness. I noted too that the Swan does have similar expression of the Alpine, yet seems to be evolving more slowly.
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Order in! Went with Pinots only this time…trying to stay “within budget.” Ya, right. I do like these wines though; they give me joy and pleasure : )
Cheers,
JP
Jeff,
Thank you! Buy multiple bottles I shall…looking forward to them.
Mark
You’re killing me. I’m trying to show restraint with my budget. Two kids in college are killing me.