TN: 2011 Rhys Alesia Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

WINE TALK
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  • 2011 Rhys Alesia Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (5/9/2014)
    Strong olives smell, almost Syrah like. Maybe stems? This bottling, like the Bearwallow are quite green on the nose. On the palate dark cherries. Medium acidity and medium tannins. A day later I can still taste the “greeness” (88 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Looking back on the CT notes the word “green” appears in about half the entries.

I have this wine but won’t consider drinking it for 5+ years. That’s with the assumption that this wine will age at a similar rate to the other Rhys pinots. FYI am drinking 2006 Alesia now and they are wonderful.

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I do not know if this is an issue with 2011 vintage, but 2 bottles of the Bearwallow & the 2 bottles of the Alesia have been super “stemmy” for lack of a better descriptor. Both showed nice fruit concentration but the greenness was quite distracting. On the other hand, the 2010 Alpine did not show any of these characteristics. Reason why I am wondering about the vintage.

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Revisited this wine a year later.
Olive smell and taste has mostly subsided and now just shows a hint of stems. Huge improvement. Dark cherries with bright acidity and minerality. Would probably rate acidity medium to high. Maybe a touch bitter on the finish but not in an unpleasant way.

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Opened one of these tonight, the nose is beginning to pick up some secondary characteristics which I think if left for a few more years would start to get really funky (in a good way). The palate still showing heavy dark fruit, medium+ acidity, and a green note that I call bell pepper but others relate to stem inclusion.

This is the best bottle i’ve had of this to date and I will plug the rest up for tomorrow to see how it develops, if you have these no rush to open them. I think they will only continue to get more interesting.

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Interesting; thanks for the update, Sebastian.