Rhys Vineyards Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, California, USA 2021

The 2021 Pinot Noir “Santa Cruz Mountains” bottling from Kevin Harvey and Jeff Brinkman at Rhys is a lovely wine in the making. The bouquet is precise and nascently complex, hopping from the glass in a vivid blend of sweet dark berries, pomegranate, espresso, fresh thyme, brown spices, stony minerality, woodsmoke and cedar. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and soil-driven in personality, with a superb core of black fruit, tangy acids, ripe tannins and excellent balance and grip on the long and complex finish. This is excellent juice!