2010 Syrah Horseshoe Vineyard

This is a fabulous set of new releases from Rhys, proprietor Kevin Harvey and winemaker Jeff Brinkman. I am not sure where to start, as all of these wines are highly recommended. Yields were brutally low in 2011, to the point Harvey told me he had never seen the cellar so empty during the fall. The Pinots were made with lower amounts of whole clusters, none in the Horseshoe and very little in the Alpine. Although Pinot Noir gets most of the limelight at Rhys, in top vintages the Syrahs are every bit as exciting. I hope readers can check them out as quality is world-class, while pricing remains incredibly reasonable. Rhys's two Chardonnay sites are 400 yards apart, but totally different in style. Ideally, the Chardonnays need several years of bottle age. If that is not an option, readers should give the Chardonnays a generous decant. Unfortunately, neither the San Mateo nor the Swan Terrace Pinot was made in 2011. However, Rhys fans will want to take a look at the Alesia wines (Rhys's second label), which are reviewed separately in this article. I also tasted all of the 2012 Pinots from barrel in composite blends. Harvey describes 2012 as the ‘vintage we have been waiting for.' It was a bumper crop for Rhys, which in these marginal sites means 30 hectoliters per hectare, yields that would be considered minimal in any other region in the world. Harvey's latest project is a Nebbiolo vineyard in Sonoma. The first vines went in just a few weeks ago. I can't wait to see how things develop at this site given Harvey's relentless passion and dedication. It is not an overstatement to say that what Kevin Harvey and his team have achieved at Rhys in just a few short years is nothing less than remarkable. These are benchmark California wines, it's as simple as that.

"We've never worked so hard for so little wine," Kevin Harvey told me as we tasted through his 2011s."We just got murdered" on yields, he said, pointing out that production was off by a full 75% from normal, "and that was after 2010, which was low as well."For example, only 3 barrels of wine were made from his 10-acre Alpine vineyard this vintage and while that's the most extreme example, "it was brutal across the board."To compensate, Harvey has at least temporarily revived his negociant label, Alesia, for 2011 "because we had access to fruit grown in great vineyards by people we trust," meaning Alder Springs for chardonnay and pinot noir.The barrel program continues to be refined here and winemaker Jeff Brinkman is working with Francois Freres barrels that are made from 4-year air-dried staves that Rhys purchases and delivers to the cooperage in St. Romain for construction.