2015 Rhys Vineyards Chardonnay Anderson Valley

Coming from Mendocino County, the 2015 Chardonnay Anderson Valley offers a riper, slightly tropical style in its aromatics, possessing lots of caramelized pineapples, orange blossom, and honeysuckle nuances, with some toasty, nutty notes developing with time in the glass. With terrific mid-palate depth and fat on the palate, as well as bright acidity and a great finish, it’s what I call a Smoking Value! It’s already impossible to resist, with a rounded feel, yet I suspect it will keep for a decade nevertheless. 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.