WTN: 2009 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard

I have quite a bit of Rhys in my cellar and I've learned a few things. One is that I do not like the Family Farm. Each vintage of this has a characteristic that does not appeal to me, with the 2009 being a big failure for them with the presence of brett in the bottles.

This 2009 was lovely. Decanted for an hour as recommended by Proprietor, Kevin Harvey. Beautiful aromatics, and the palate had dark cherry fruit with baking spice and minerals. The acidity was refreshing with a note of strawberry jam on the finish. For me, a good time to be drinking this.

[David M. Bueker]

Sounds great.

I feel conflicted about Family Farm, as it often makes up the backbone of the San Mateo bottling which I like quite a lot. Not sure why that doesn't translate to FF on its own. Excepting the 2009 of course, though I have had a couple of brett free bottles.

I don't know why that is, David. I don't have any San Mateo left, but I did like what I had. I've been drinking through my Family Farm, thinking Alpine and Horseshoe could use more time, but I wanted something dependable and went to the website vintage chart. This one looked good to go, and Kevin confirmed it.