2015 Family Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir
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Tasting notes
This is at once aromatically quite ripe but also quite floral with a lovely panoply of spice elements adding breadth to the mostly red and dark berry fruit aromas. There is excellent volume, mid-palate density and richness to the borderline lavish flavors that coat the palate with dry extract on the moderately warm finish that really fans out.
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2015 Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard is a beauty, and while it's obviously one of the riper wines in the range this year, it handles it very well, opening in the glass with notes of red cherries, wild berries, aromatic bark, subtle sweet spices and savory bass notes. On the palate, it's full-bodied, ample and layered, with a generous core of ripe fruit, beautifully ripe, velvety tannins and succulent balancing acids. Attractively multidimensional and complete, the vintage and site have made for a very harmonious marriage this year and a Rhys wine that's unusually seductive and voluptuous in its youth.
My favorite vintage of this cuvee to date, the 2015 Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard is just smoking good. Possessing awesome complexity and depth in its framboise, cassis, spice, forest floor and leafy, green herb aromatics, it hits the palate with an understated, yet building style that carries beautiful richness, sweet, polished tannin and surprising length. While the overall impression here is one of upfront charm and fruit, it’s going to keep nicely in the cellar given its balance, depth and length. Count me as fan. This was a terrific lineup of 2015s from the team at Rhys. Across the board, these are tight and structured, with terrific concentration. Give them a few years of bottle age. Unfortunately, due to the devastating yields, there’s no Skyline Vineyard or Hillside releases in 2015s. In addition, they have a new estate vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains (bringing their total to seven estate vineyards) that will be coming on line over the next couple of years. Named Mount Pajaro Vineyard, the site was planted in 2010 and covers 18 acres in the southern part of the Santa Cruz Mountains, planted all with high density, 3.5 feet row spacing. Harvey commented that they’ve learned a lot over the past decade planting their other estate properties and they’re excited about the quality of this site.
The 2015 Pinot Noir Family Farm Vineyard is tightly wound today. Then again, it was just bottled about a month before this tasting. Pure, saline-driven and tense, the Family Farm shows a more focused, chiseled expression of the year. Time in the glass brings out the wine's body, textural richness and overall density. Even so, the Family Farm plays more in the red fruit end of the flavor spectrum. Readers who find the 2015 Pinots a bit too rich will find much to admire in the Family Farm. (AG)