Just because we offer a disproportionate amount of Burgundy doesn’t mean we don’t think California can produce world-class Pinot Noir. It most definitely can, and does, with today’s wine being a prime example.
Where I often get hung up is on the pricing, which for Californian wines gets lofty in a hurry—and since our number-one criteria in selecting wines is price-to-quality, the economics don’t always favor my home state. Today’s 2016 from Rhys Vineyards, who’ve revived their Alesia label to showcase appellation-designated wines from estate-owned vineyards, hits that ‘over-delivers-for-the-price’ mark in style. Do you like to drink top-level Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis? This wine will evoke memories of those for a fraction of the price. There are a lot of luxury-level California Pinot Noir bottlings out there, and as they climb the ladder in price, so too (usually) do the levels of oak and extract. I do think that times are changing—that the best producers, in the best California terroirs, are deciding that bigger is not necessarily better—but often the most intriguing California Pinots are those a few rungs below the “top of the line.” The appeal of this Alesia wine is its transparency: It is easy to place it in the cool, breezy, woodsy Santa Cruz Mountains from which it came. Across the board, Rhys has shown a deft touch with true cool-climate Pinot Noirs from Santa Cruz and the Anderson Valley, always delivering plenty of nerve and mineral drive along with sumptuous wild berry fruit. They’ve become a significant player in the Santa Cruz Mountains and this wine rewards their commitment to this relatively unsung terroir for Pinot Noir. It rewards us, too, as I’m certain you’ll agree when you try it!
The original Rhys ‘estate’ vineyard was owner Kevin Harvey’s quarter-acre “Home Vineyard” in the hills of Woodside, California, planted in 1995. In the years since, Harvey and the Rhys team have vastly expanded their presence in the Santa Cruz Mountains, developing new sites throughout the appellation. At present, they farm six different vineyards within the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, including the high-elevation, shale-rich “Horseshoe” and “Alpine” vineyards along Alpine Road, as well as the “Skyline” vineyard, which, at 2,300 feet in elevation, is one of the highest Pinot Noir vineyards in California. The most recent addition to their Santa Cruz portfolio is the Mt. Pajaro Vineyard, near Windy Oaks at the southern end of the AVA, and this site supplies much of the fruit for today’s Alesia bottling—along with fruit from younger-vine blocks within the other Santa Cruz sites. As such, the soil composition of the component vineyard is mixed, with shale and some volcanic material in the higher-elevation sites and more clay and loam at lower levels.
Previously, the Alesia label was used for wines produced by Rhys from purchased fruit, but they’ve since done a 180 and, starting with the 2016 vintage, have designated Alesia as the name for 100% estate-grown “appellation” wines (i.e. those with broader appellation classifications such as ‘Santa Cruz Mountains,’ without any mention of a single vineyard site; henceforth the Rhys name will be used for single-vineyard bottlings only).
The 2016 Alesia Santa Cruz Mountains bottling is a barrel selection of lots from four of the six Rhys estate vineyards in the zone. The Alesia- and Rhys-labeled wines are treated exactly the same in the winery: the vineyards are farmed using both organic and biodynamic practices; wines are fermented on native yeasts only in small (one-ton) fermenters; twice-daily ‘punchdowns’ are done by foot; assorted lots are fermented ‘whole cluster’ (about 25%); and aging takes place in mostly used French oak barrels. Across the board, the Rhys wines consistently capture plenty of ripeness but also a level of tension that only the very best Californian wines manage to preserve.
That’s the main way Alesia differs (in a good way) from Burgundy. Much as I love the French stuff, rarely does it achieve this wine’s relatively effortless mix of voluptuousness and freshness: its acidity is bright without being sharp, and it is lusciously ripe without going overboard. You usually have to spend a lot of money in Burgundy to get this level of purity. Texturally, Alesia is pretty hard to beat, and while it is delicious to drink now I do think it has a good decade of positive evolution ahead of it. In the glass, it’s a deep, bright ruby with soft pink highlights on the rim, with highly perfumed aromas of crushed wild blackberries, huckleberries, raspberries, damp violets, sandalwood, wet flowers, and damp forest. It’s quite taut and energetic, with very fine tannins and the acidity to allow for aging. Decant a bottle now about a half-hour before serving in large Burgundy stems at 60-65 degrees—it’ll make a silky, seductive companion to a wide variety of dishes. And if you can keep your hands off it, I suspect it’ll make California proud by evolving beautifully over the next 5-10 years, if not longer. As Kevin Harvey figured out a while ago, sometimes you don’t have to go further than your own backyard for a great Pinot Noir. Enjoy!
