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2009 Rhys Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (3/31/2012)
A wine that’s very easy to misread if you don’t give it enough time to unwind. On night one, this was unsatisfying; it had many characteristics typical of Rhys pinots - tart but present fruit with a slight citrus blossom topnote on the nose, stemmy/pine needle herbal aromatics, etc. but a streak of bitterness to the tannin, and the sum result was this was simply unharmonious. Resealed in the fridge, night 2 was much the same. Finally, on night 3 this began to unfurl, and night 4 and day 5 saw a wine that was just singing. The bitterness to the tannin had receded, allowing a sweet pinesap quality to the fruit to come to the fore. Although I wouldn’t recommend drinking this now without at least a long decant, I believe in 5-6 years time, this bottling will give the single vineyard pinots a real run for their money. Keep your hands off, but load up and you will be happy you did, further down the road. (92 pts.)
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