2009 Bearwallow Vineyard Pinot Noir

The 2009 Pinot Noir Bearwallow Vineyard offers up sweet red cherries, flowers, berries and mint in a relatively mid-weight, focused style for this winery. Clean, saline notes give the wine much of its energy and focus. It is a tight, inward wine in need of at least a few years of cellaring. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019. Inspired by a love for Burgundy, proprietor Kevin Harvey has set his sights on making top-flight Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Pinots in particular are exceptional for their sheer personality, but I also think the wines could also prove to be some of the most long-lived Pinots from California because of their minerality and structure. I tasted a wide range of wines with Harvey and winemaker Jeff Brinkman, including a number of older Pinots going back to 2006. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) none of those older wines appears close to being ready to drink! The Rhys team is obsessed with their vineyards. Everything else is fairly straightforward. The Chardonnays are vinified using ambient yeasts. The wines are not racked until they are prepared for bottling, which is done with no fining or filtration. The Pinots are made in a similarly minimalist fashion, with a high percentage of stems (50-100%) and little manipulation in the cellar. Harvey describes 2009 as a cooler vintage overall than 2008. Tel. (866) 511-1520; www.rhysvineyards.com

Bright ruby. Intriguingly perfumed bouquet of strawberry and raspberry, along with a high-pitched blood orange note and a seductive floral quality. Shows an array of sweet red fruit and spice flavors and a zesty mineral nuance that adds sharpness and definition. The finish leaves suave floral and spicecake notes behind, along with emphatically juicy red fruits and a hint of cola.