2016 | Rhys Vineyards | Skyline Vineyard Pinot Noir

A bouquet of rose garden, wild flowers, strawberries, blueberries and crushed rocks. The palate is silky, elegant, and beautifully light on its feet and nuanced, it has the vibrant streak of acidity on a balanced yet elegant finish.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: The 2016 Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard is one of the more exotic wines in the range, bursting with complex aromas of strawberries, plums, potpourri, rich spice and a subtle bass note of grilled meat. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and beautifully complete, simultaneously ample and tense, rich but weightless. This Pinot Noir's silky structure and concentration reflect yields so low that ten vines are typically required to produce one bottle. Four or five years of patience will be required and more will be rewarded.

• Jeb Dunnuck: Also seeing 100% stems, the 2016 Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard is pure class and I always find this cuvée to be one of the most textbook Santa Cruz Mountain Pinot Noirs in the lineup. Ample dark fruits, forest floor, decayed flowers, and hints of earth all flow to a medium-bodied 2016 that has everything in the right places, no hard edges, and a great finish.

Producer Information

Rhys Vineyards is a well-regarded wine producer based in the Santa Cruz Mountains and sourcing fruit from mountain vineyards both in the Santa Cruz Mountain AVA and the Anderson Valley AVA, some 150 miles (240km) north. The Californian estate, which established its first vineyards in the mid-1990s, focuses on three grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Six of the estate's vineyards are based in the Santa Cruz Mountains to the south of San Francisco. These vineyards all differ slightly in terms of terroir, particularly when it comes to soil and aspect. The soil types range from clay loam to shallow, rocky soils – all giving distinct characters in the final wines. The individual vineyards' mesoclimates are largely dependent on their aspects and degrees of slope, as each has a different exposure to sunlight and breezes from the nearby Pacific. One of the vineyards, Skyline, is one of California's highest vineyards, at an altitude of 2360ft (720m) above sea level. Rhys Vineyards make a range of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, as well as several Chardonnay and Syrah wines. The company also has a 14-hectare (35-acre) site in Anderson Valley planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In the winery, grapes are vinified by block in small, one-ton fermentation tanks. The grapes are treaded by foot, instead of using mechanical punchdowns or pumpovers. Rhys Vineyards uses natural yeasts for fermentation, and the wines are aged in French oak.

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