TN: Rhys and Californios Winemaker Dinner

WINE TALK
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RHYS AND CALIFORNIOS WINEMAKER DINNER - Rhys Vineyards (5/3/2025)

First ever Winemaker dinner in the Rhys facility on Skyline.
Hosted by Jeff Brinkman, dinner was prepared by Ian Gordon, the sous chef of Californios restaurant in SF, whose contemporary take on Mexican cuisine has earned two Michelin stars every year since 2018.

Dinner

ANTOJOS: Bean fritter with Tsar Nicoulai Estate caviar. Preserved fig quesadilla. Water buffalo cream cheese tostada with smoked trout roe and dill
2018 MT. PAJARO BLANC DE BLANCS

HAWAIIAN KAMPACHI: Citrus, rhubarb, green strawberry, coconut leche de tigre
2019 ESTATE BRUT ROSÉ

ZARANDEADO STYLE PRAWNS: Chile oil and scallop with hoja santa
2013 HORSESHOE CHARDONNAY from 3L

SPRING SALAD: White asparagus, puntarelle, yellow snap pea, celtuce, lettuce hearts, maple shoots and sprouted chickpea. Preserved Meyer lemon kumquat vinaigrette
2018 HORSESHOE CHARDONNAY from MAGNUM

MUSHROOM TAMAL: Morels, pasilla peppers, corn miso, water buffalo stracciatella and plantain espuma
2019 HORSESHOE OWN-ROOTED PINOT NOIR

ARROZ PRIMAVERA: Carolina gold rice, pancetta, peas, carrots and quail egg
2014 SWAN TERRACE PINOT NOIR

WAYGU ASADO
Grilled leek, stuffed morel, dark mole, salsa asada crema, house made flour tortilla
2022 ALPINE HILLSIDE PINOT NOIR
2022 HORSESHOE HILLSIDE PINOT NOIR

PEA PALATE CLEANSER

STRAWBERRY SANDWICH: Smoked strawberries and reduced Chenin Blanc
2017 MT. PAJARO CHENIN BLANC

  • 2013 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
    Paired with prawn in chili sauce with a scallop.
    Served out of a 3L(!), one of only 2 bottled. Opened but not decanted about 7h before serving.
    A beautiful light honey color in the glass. Flinty nose with notes of black truffle. Lots of acid on the tongue and a wonderful round mouthfeel but not obviously oaky. Pears, honey on the finish.
    This is a well executed chard, and is ageing well even in the 3L. If you have smaller format bottles (which is the case unless you have the other 3L ;-), you might want to crack one open and start tasting now as it will likely be progressing faster than this. (94 points)
  • 2018 Rhys Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
    Poured out of a magnum, opened 5h prior. Tasted side be side with the '13. Served with asparagus with sprouted chickpeas and snap peas with kumquat meter lemon reduction.
    Smoky, flinty, almost a whiff of green pepper on the nose. Starting to really integrate, even in the magnum it is just entering the drinking window.
    A very intense vintage, will continue to age well. Great now but could use some time in a dark place to mellow out. (93 points)
  • 2019 Rhys Pinot Noir Ungrafted Vines Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
    Poured alongside a mushroom tamal, with corn miso polenta plantain plasuma and pasilia peppers with shaved truffles.
    Beautiful nose very earthy and strong tones of forest floor and mushrooms. But it also has floral tones of violet and brambles. Holy crap this is an elegant whiff that deeply reminds me of a high quality burgundy.
    Finish is amazing. Elegant tannins that work well with he earthy elements (96 points)
  • 2022 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Hillside - USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
    Spring Rhys dinner at winery. With Waygu. Served with 22 horseshoe hillside select as a horizontal. Grown only a few hundred yards apart but 10m years of geology separate them.
    More flinty and floral than the hillside. A bit more acid on the finish. Simply amazing. This shames the rest of the Rhys stable in ways I didn't expect until drinking side by side throughout the evening. (95 points)
  • 2022 Rhys Pinot Noir Horseshoe Hillside - USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
    Paired with Waygu, and served side by side with the '22 Alpine Hillside pinot. Grown only a few hundred yards apart but 10m years of geology separate them.
    Opened (but not decanted) about 6h prior to dinner.
    Both amazing wines but this Horseshoe edged out the Alpine Hillside with a slightly more elegant, refined and developed nose and mouth feel. Drinking really well already, with fine grained tannins. There is no doubt this will continue to age incredibly well for the next 10+ years but i would not be afraid to open a bottle now for a special occasion.
    Note that the table was split on the 1-2 finishing order... either way. both were tremendous wines. (96 points)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Welcome, strong first post. LOL

Jeff is great.

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Fantastic first post. Please stick around.

I’ve been buying Rhys most offerings for 15 years or something, but somehow I hadn’t heard of the Ungrafted one. Probably in some premium offering that was too pricey for me and I didn’t read closely.

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Thanks! The ungrafted vines regularly give the hillside bottlings a run for their money. They have an interesting gold band on the label so you can tell the difference.

These dinners have become a biannual thing at the winery - Its a great way to let Jeff open up wines that you dont want to crack yet from your own cellar :wink:

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2018 was the first vintage for the ungrafted. If I recall, it was $150 and I was allocated one bottle. I don’t plan to open it for at least five years.

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$150? That’s outright graft!

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The hillsides are about $180, so its a bargain :wink:

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@David_Lewin for me, that was the big shocker from this dinner. The 2022 Hillsides (at least) were drinking incredibly well NOW and I would never have expected that. The tannins were quite fine grained and elegant, and I would not be afraid to open one if an opportunity arose (unless you only had 1 or 2).
That said, there is no question they are here for the long haul and will benefit from a decade or 2 chilling in the cellar.

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The 2018 Ungrafted and Hillsides were both $149 upon release. I thought that was a fair price in both cases. I bought Rhys first with the 2004 vintage and last with the 2019 vintage(a function of age I’m now 76, and a large (for me) collection of the wines). While the prices went up, sometimes significantly, during that time, I thought they were competitive with other wines. Others may not share that opinion.