2016 Rhys Pinot Noir Swan Terrace
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The 2016 Pinot Noir Swan Terrace comes from a small, east-facing portion of the Alpine Vineyard and more chalky soils. It saw plenty of stems and mostly neutral oak, and has a beautifully complex, nuanced style in its red and black fruits, forest floor, tapenade, and violet-tinged aromas and flavors. With subtle oak, a rich, layered texture, and medium to full body, it’s another brilliant, brilliant wine from this team that is going to deliver incredible amounts of pleasure over the coming 15+ years.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Pinot Noir Swan Terrace is another star in this range. Soaring aromatics and finely sculpted fruit are just two of the signatures in this sublime, utterly captivating Pinot Noir from Rhys. here, too, the 100% whole clusters are very nicely integrated. The Swan Terrace is a wine of regal sophistication and elegance. Don't miss it!
The supremely elegant 2016 Pinot Noir Swan Terrace—which was vinified with 100% whole cluster and matured in 20% new oak—was one of the high points of my tasting with winemaker Jeff Brinkman and proprietor Kevin Harvey. Bursting from the glass with an extravagant bouquet of wild plums, chocolate, licorice, rich soil, potpourri and spice, the wine is full-bodied, layered and expansive, with a velvety, even and plush attack, amazing mid-palate depth and dimension, stunning intensity and concentration and a long, perfumed and stony finish. As readers may know, the Swan Terrace is a small, east-facing parcel of Rhys' Alpine Vineyard where the soils consist of chalky Purisima shale.