TN: 2015 Rhys Blancs de Blancs Bearwallow Vineyard - too much coin for too little wine

[MChang]

The sea smoke sparkler is actually very nice but
Super expensive

[larry_schaffer]

There is, relatively speaking, an ocean of sparkling wine currently in production in Oregon. My assumption is that this is going to go poorly. I think it’s a bad idea that is based upon tasting room/event business models combined with having more fruit than still wine sales capacities. I’ve seen and expect to see more mediocre and expensive sparklers from up here soon.

Interesting perspective - and I think the same can be said throughout CA as well. Folks like Rack and Riddle have made it possible for any tasting room to offer a ‘sparkling’ wine these days and many have felt obliged to do so. There are some wonderful, smaller production sparkling coming out of our area, but folks like Laetitia, for the money, continue to over-deliver though they also tend to be overlooked.

Many of those producing higher end chards and pinots are anxious to extend their products lines and this ‘makes sense’ - but just because you can doesn’t mean you should

Cheers.

[Sc0tt_F_tzgerald]

Appreciate your note. I went in for 2 mags and 2 750s, so disappointed to hear. I’ll sit on these for a while and see what develops.

[Markus_S]

Kind of how I feel about their pinots at this point…

[David_Bu3ker]

I am liking the Pinots (the vineyards I enjoy) even more these days, along with the Chardonnays and that wonderful, lone Syrah from Horseshoe.

[Frank_Murray_III]

I will tee up a 750 of this next weekend and see what’s in the bottle. My only experience to date with the wine was tasting from a hand disgorged dosage test bottle at the winery this past summer. So, I’m interested to see what the finished product now tastes like.

I’m with David, in that I really appreciate and value the Alpine and Horseshoe bottlings, Pinot and Chard. I guess though we’ll have to aggregate some opinions on the BdB sparkler and see, but based on the early TNs being logged into CT, the feedback is not very good.

[larry_schaffer]

Frank,

Perhaps you can ‘request’ that a few of these make it into the mix for Falltacular? That might be fun . . .

Happy New Year, my friend.

Cheers!

[Wes_Barton]

My impression with this wine was it didn’t make a big initial impact, but became compelling and drank very well. It speaks of Anderson Valley. It’s the sort of wine that can suffer in a line-up, but is very enjoyable on its own - like, if you take it as it is, drink it in the context it fits, rather than fight it with expectation.

Definitely over-priced for drink now enjoyability. Count me skeptical it will improve notably with age, but who knows…

As far as the winemaking, as I said, it speaks of site. Do you want that masked? A Horseshoe or Alpine sparkler made the same way would probably be much more to you’re all’s liking.

[Gary_Schulte]

Is it possible that there’s too much expectation for a BdB sparkling wine that did not spend more than a few years in cellar? Aren’t most of the better known champagnes stored for ~5-7 years before disgorging? For the Rhys BdB I would consider storing it for the same length of time it had at Rhys before disgorging. My guess is that this wine will develop well over a few years. Don’t lose hope on this one.

[David_Bu3ker]

Balance matters. This wine did not have it.

As I mentioned above, I am going to wait a while before opening any more bottles, but I have had a lot of young sparkling wine in the last 25 years, and this one was not up to par for what it was supposed to be.

Wes - as for expression of site, the sweetness masked any site signature.

[R_Roberts]

Is it possible that there’s too much expectation for a BdB sparkling wine that did not spend more than a few years in cellar? Aren’t most of the better known champagnes stored for ~5-7 years before disgorging? For the Rhys BdB I would consider storing it for the same length of time it had at Rhys before disgorging. My guess is that this wine will develop well over a few years. Don’t lose hope on this one.

I’m fairly sure Kevin said this wine is drinking well now and no need to wait.

[R_Roberts]

As far as the winemaking, as I said, it speaks of site.

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, it didn’t strike me as Bearwallow chard.

[Rajesh_P_a_r_i_k_h]

I was extremely disappointed with this wine too. Enjoyable, but way over priced.

[Charlie_Carnes]

There is, relatively speaking, an ocean of sparkling wine currently in production in Oregon. My assumption is that this is going to go poorly. I think it’s a bad idea that is based upon tasting room/event business models combined with having more fruit than still wine sales capacities. I’ve seen and expect to see more mediocre and expensive sparklers from up here soon.

I know very little of Oregon sparklers, but Beau at Random Wine Company made the most beautiful Gamay Noir sparkler for 2013. I have begged him to make some more. Stuff was gorgeous and he’s sold out. Curious if you ever tried this?

[Jud_Reis]

David - with you as well. This was sweet and simple -not bad, but not worth the $. I detected nothing in the bottle that said it would improve with age. Have 2 bottles and a mag left, so not quite sure what I am going to do.

[Jim_Anderson]

There is, relatively speaking, an ocean of sparkling wine currently in production in Oregon. My assumption is that this is going to go poorly. I think it’s a bad idea that is based upon tasting room/event business models combined with having more fruit than still wine sales capacities. I’ve seen and expect to see more mediocre and expensive sparklers from up here soon.

I know very little of Oregon sparklers, but Beau at Random Wine Company made the most beautiful Gamay Noir sparkler for 2013. I have begged him to make some more. Stuff was gorgeous and he’s sold out. Curious if you ever tried this?

No. This wouldn’t be something in my wheelhouse anyway. What was the price? If you enjoyed it and it was price appropriate than that’s great.

[bob_poirier]

We drank this NYE along side the Taittinger 06 Comtes, and agree that it lacks complexity, but we didn’t notice any overt sweetness,to me it was fruit dominant but more of a slightly underipe green apple with citrus notes. No brioche yeast notes.

[Mike_Evans]

There is, relatively speaking, an ocean of sparkling wine currently in production in Oregon. My assumption is that this is going to go poorly. I think it’s a bad idea that is based upon tasting room/event business models combined with having more fruit than still wine sales capacities. I’ve seen and expect to see more mediocre and expensive sparklers from up here soon.

I know very little of Oregon sparklers, but Beau at Random Wine Company made the most beautiful Gamay Noir sparkler for 2013. I have begged him to make some more. Stuff was gorgeous and he’s sold out. Curious if you ever tried this?

No. This wouldn’t be something in my wheelhouse anyway. What was the price? If you enjoyed it and it was price appropriate than that’s great.

It was $35 on Berserker Day and if you like rosé Champagne, I think this would be in your wheelhouse. It was made in the traditional method, which distinguishes it from a lot of the pet nats I’ve seen from Oregon and which have been a mixed bag in my limited experience.

[John_Peacock]

There is, relatively speaking, an ocean of sparkling wine currently in production in Oregon. My assumption is that this is going to go poorly. I think it’s a bad idea that is based upon tasting room/event business models combined with having more fruit than still wine sales capacities. I’ve seen and expect to see more mediocre and expensive sparklers from up here soon.

And they will all be $75 per bottle as well.

[Charlie_Carnes]

My impression with this wine was it didn’t make a big initial impact, but became compelling and drank very well. It speaks of Anderson Valley. It’s the sort of wine that can suffer in a line-up, but is very enjoyable on its own - like, if you take it as it is, drink it in the context it fits, rather than fight it with expectation.

Definitely over-priced for drink now enjoyability. Count me skeptical it will improve notably with age, but who knows…

As far as the winemaking, as I said, it speaks of site. Do you want that masked? A Horseshoe or Alpine sparkler made the same way would probably be much more to you’re all’s liking.

Interesting take. I love Anderson fruit so much and am a huge fan of Bearwallow, so now I really want to see what the fuss is all about…