2018 Rhys Pinot Noir Home Vineyard

This is one of the spiciest wines in the range with its array of anise, cinnamon, sandalwood and clove nuances that add breadth to the ultra-fresh essence of red currant, plum and violet. Once again there is a plush and generous mouthfeel to the super-suave medium weight flavors that possess a highly seductive mouthfeel, all wrapped in a dusty, firm and mildly austere finale.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Home Vineyard is one of the more savory wines in the range. Holiday spice cake, sweet dried cherry, tobacco leaf, cedar and earthy tones are all finely knit together. A Pinot of subtlety and nuance, the Home Vineyard, will appeal most to readers who enjoy understated wines. The 100% whole clusters add quite a bit of savoriness, but not in an exaggerated way. (AG)

This wine is grown on a 1.57-acre (0.63-ha) vineyard of mass-selected vines at 450 ft (135 m) elevation. The vineyard has an 18% slope and is an amphitheatre that wraps around to offer sun exposure from the north-east to the south-west. The soils are decomposed Whiskey Hill claystone. Arresting scents of fresh flowers and raspberries. Beautifully seamless in the mouth with raspberry, dusty earth, thyme and dried lavender notes shot through with brilliant, filigreed acidity. Faint tannins are quite fine-grained and powdery. There's an effortlessness to this wine that is instantly disarming. It doesn't have the cut of some other bottlings, making me wonder if it might be slightly shorter-lived than some of its siblings but it is not without verve. Phenomenal. (AY)