2009 Pinot Noir (San Mateo County)

"It's stating the obvious but overripeness is the biggest danger we face in California," Kevin Harvey told me in March. "We get intensity in our wines like no place else, but there's always that risk of being too much of a good thing." Harvey said that his goal at Rhys is to achieve power with balance. "We want concentration but not weight and thickness." The last three vintages ('09, '08 and '07) have been extremely dry, he said "and that poses a challenge to achieve finesse. Two thousand nine was cooler than '08, which we like, but the yields were only moderate, which is always a shame, business-wise." He believes that the forward nature of his 2009s, which he calls "well-concentrated," will allow them to be drunk with pleasure on the young side while his "even more concentrated" 2008s will need more bottle age.