2026 Spring Single Vineyard Release
The 2023 Vintage
Long, very cool, and remarkably even, 2023 was the kind of growing season that cool-climate winegrowers dream of. A cold winter and spring were followed by one of the mildest summers in memory, with cool conditions persisting through an extended autumn harvest with no disruptive heat or rain events. The result was extraordinary hangtime, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and precisely while retaining vibrant acidity and mineral definition. Perhaps most fascinating, the wines gained unexpected depth and color during élevage, revealing a rare union of elegance and power. Across all three of the vineyards in this release, 2023 delivered radiant aromatics, refined structures, and breathtaking transparency of place.
“Tasting the 2023s here is like dropping the needle on a greatest hits record. Even though Rhys produces a dizzying array of wines, each bottling clearly expresses its origins. The 2023s are bright, intoxicatingly aromatic and powerful; the reds are particularly fine.”
Vinous – Billy Norris
“Based on my tastings of the 2023 vintage across the Central Coast so far, the full Rhys lineup from this vintage was highly anticipated in my coverage of the region, and I’m pleased to report that the results are excellent.”
Wine Advocate – Matthew Luczy
Horseshoe Vineyard
Horseshoe’s hillsides sit atop a ridge of Monterey formation shale that has slowly risen to the surface over millennia. This brittle, lightweight shale, streaked with rust hues and laced with occasional limestone, crumbles underfoot and provides scant topsoil, resulting in excellent drainage and low-vigor vines. This combination of sheltered coolness and austere, rocky soils imprints an extremely distinctive character to Horseshoe’s wines. They are uniquely mineral driven, precise and focused, with an almost palpable tension on the palate that greatly rewards patience in the cellar.
2023 Rhys Horseshoe Vineyard Chardonnay
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2023) – “The 2023 Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard has real attitude. It’s so phenolic, chewy and salty. a wine that channels all the intense power of this terroir. The 2023 is all about cut and drive, seeming as if it were chiseled from stone, but there’s also a beguiling underlying richness that grows more prominent in the glass. Fruit is pushed all the way to the background, but that’s not surprising for a Horseshoe Chardonnay in its early days. Brisk and racy, this precocious young wine will need at least a few years to begin to reveal its charms, but your patience will be rewarded. 95+pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “The most powerful of the Chardonnays is the 2023 Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard, which confidently emphasizes its textural power while maintaining finesse and nuance. The bouquet features a round, stone-fruit and nougat-like richness, complemented by dried white flowers and citrus-driven energy, leading to a sleek, tense, silky and rich palate. The finish is the slowest and most concentrated among the Chardonnay selections, perfectly balancing high-toned energy with a deep, high-fidelity richness and a persistent salinity, with less overt mineral character than the Mt Pajaro bottling. 96pts.”
2023 Rhys Horseshoe Vineyard Pinot Noir
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2025) – “The 2023 Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard feels particularly composed and polished, especially juxtaposed against the wilder Horseshoe Hillside bottling tasting alongside. Notes of garrigue, palo santo, dark cherry, black raspberry, iodine and star anise blossom with aeration, building intensity and delineation. But where the Horseshoe really shines is in its seamless, finessed texture and exceptional energy. Though approachable today, the Horseshoe will only grow even more complex with time in the cellar. It’s a masterclass in California terroir. 96pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “The 2023 Pinot Noir Horseshoe Vineyard opens with a calm, cool and collected bouquet of dark fruits, sage, orange peel and sandalwood. The palate is silky, pliable and endlessly refined, releasing into an explosive, measured and symphonic finish that drips with juicy, invigorating acidity and saline overtones. The overall energy and its mineral-driven core continues to open in the glass, making for the most complete and multidimensional expression of this bottling I have tasted to date. 97pts.”
2022 Rhys Horseshoe Vineyard Syrah
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2025) – “The 2022 Syrah Horseshoe Vineyard is inky, virile and so distinctive. An Increase in the use of 25-hectoliter casks in élevage lent an extra measure of textural polish, rounding the wine’s edges ever so slightly in the most attractive way. Chalky, powdery tannins wrap around layers of ripe blue/purplish fruit, mocha, ash, smoked meat and incense. There’s remarkable tension here, a push-pull between muscle and finesse that makes the 2022 especially compelling. 96pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “The 2022 Syrah Horseshoe Vineyard delivers a quintessential, varietal nose of cracked pepper, violets, grilled meat and an opaque core of perfectly ripe black fruits, introducing a supple, rich palate that remains impressively nimble and spry. It concludes with a long, layered and savory finish loaded with meaty nuances and floral perfume, lingering with a delicious combination of refined, subtly drying tannins and succulent, measured acidity. 95pts.”
Mt. Pajaro Vineyard
Mt. Pajaro is situated in the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains. Here, the San Andreas Fault splinters into a web of smaller faults, creating a complex tapestry of soils. The topsoil features well-drained clays, and beneath lies rocky marine shale. Farmed organically, Mt. Pajaro exemplifies our “spare no expense” philosophy in pursuit of natural vine balance and terroir expression.
2023 Rhys Mt. Pajaro Vineyard Chardonnay
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2025) – “The 2023 Chardonnay Mt. Pajaro Vineyard is the standout in the Chardonnay lineup this year. It opens with a spark of flinty reduction before diving deep into a well of minerality.
Layers of oyster shell, orange zest and chalk add complexity to a creamy-textured mouthfeel that screams Meursault. Energetic and precise, the 2023 flies across the palate with superb drive and serious inner tension. Best of all, the Pajaro can either be enjoyed in the near term or cellared. It’s a fabulous wine from Proprietor Kevin Harvey and Winemaker Jeff Brinkman. 96pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “The 2023 Chardonnay Mt. Pajaro Vineyard is especially impressive this vintage, showcasing the more high-toned and lively expression of Chardonnay in the Rhys lineup. The aroma perfectly balances notes of citrus peel, fresh herbs and sea spray with a subtle padding of lees-derived richness underneath. The palate is the most tensile and elastic of the range, driven by invigorating acidity. It has a laser-focused finish that gains energy and depth with time in the glass. As seen in earlier vintages, the maturity of this site becomes more evident with each year, producing a uniquely tense and focused Chardonnay that provides a contrast to the aromatic complexity of Alpine and the textured power of Horseshoe. 96pts.”
2023 Rhys Mt. Pajaro Vineyard Pinot Noir
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2025) – “The 2023 Pinot Noir Mt. Pajaro Vineyard is an exuberant, forward wine that wears its heart on its sleeve. Vinified with fully destemmed fruit and aged in 20% new French Oak, the Pajaro bursts from the glass with kirsch, exotic spice and dark cherry tones, accented by an unmistakable saline edge. There’s lovely mid-palate richness and seamless balance here. Silky yet upright, the 2023 is a wine without corners. Fantastic. 95pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “It has been fascinating to watch Mt. Pajaro come into its own alongside the more established Horseshoe and Alpine bottlings, and the 2023 Pinot Noir Mt. Pajaro Vineyard is a beautifully multidimensional iteration of this site. It opens with a beaming nose that melds herbal, spice-driven and floral notes with a red- and black-fruited core and distinctly oceanic overtones. The palate is fine-boned and deftly concentrated, releasing into an intense, searingly focused and deliciously rich finish propelled by vibrant acidity, pronounced salinity and refined tannic intensity. 95+pts.”
2023 Rhys Mt. Pajaro Vineyard Chenin Blanc
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2023) – “The 2023 Chenin Blanc Mt. Pajaro Vineyard is steely, driven and very phenolic. Lean and mean, it’s a wine that doesn’t care much for pleasantries, instead diving deeply into the realm of mineral intensity and pure stony expression. The Pajaro Chenin means business, breaking down the door with notes of slate, white pepper, green apple skin and clover honey. Fruit is very much pushed to the background, but then again, this is what Pajaro does best. 94pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “The 2023 Chenin Blanc Mt. Pajaro Vineyard is the more chiseled and focused Chenin Blanc bottling, providing a beautiful contrast to the more textural and weighty Horseshoe bottling. It echoes its Chardonnay counterpart in its electric, oceanic profile, combining seaside scents with almond flower and pastry cream aromas. The palate echoes with a bright, searing focus padded with a touch of textural breadth, releasing into an intricate, mouthwatering finish. 93pts.”
Clarke Ranch
For decades, this stretch of rugged northern Mendocino coast was essentially an unmapped frontier for fine wine. In the late 2000s, our search led us to Clarke Ranch, a historic 4,600-acre property settled in the 19th century by English botanist Thomas Clarke. Tucked just ten miles from the Pacific at 2,000 feet of elevation, this dramatic coastal ridge revealed everything we had hoped to find: mineral-rich clay topsoils over fractured volcanic schist, basalt, and chert, and a cool-climate pattern nearly identical to Burgundy in its diurnal highs, lows, and growing degree days.
2023 Rhys Clarke Ranch Chardonnay
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2025) – “Completing the trifecta of wines from this newly developed site in Mendocino County, the 2023 Chardonnay Clarke Ranch is another smashing success. It’s already a wine of gravitas and poise that belies the young vine age (planted in 2016). Crystalline in texture and ultra-pure, the 2023 turns out an array of golden apple, chamomile, fresh mint, slate and crushed rocks in a velvety-smooth package. Clarke Ranch delivered on all fronts in 2023. The Chardonnay is just great. 95pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “The debut bottling from the latest addition to the Rhys portfolio, the 2023 Chardonnay Clarke Ranch, comes from a massal selection planted in 2016, covering seven acres, with two of those acres being ungrafted. The nose is the most saline, focused and intense of the Rhys North Coast Chardonnays, leading to a lively and silky palate that finishes on an intense and focused note, lingering with succulent orchard and citrus fruit flavors. As with the stellar Pinot Noir bottling, this site offers a profile more comparable to the Santa Cruz Mountains stable than Anderson Valley’s Bearwallow. 94pts.”
2023 Rhys Clarke Ranch Pinot Noir
Billy Norris, Vinous, (Sept 2025) – “The 2023 Pinot Noir Clarke Ranch is a new wine in this range, sourced from Rhys’ newest development, a 2015-planted vineyard in Mendocino County at an elevation of 2,000 feet. Suffice it to say, this is a very impressive debut. There’s such power and breadth on display. The 2023 is gorgeously plush yet finely chiseled, with a small proportion of new wood in élevage lending fruit density and creaminess to a backdrop of saline-inflected earth tones. A whiff of California chaparral herbs and marine-like minerality lingers through the long, silky finish. I can’t wait to taste this wine in future vintages as the vines age, but if anything is clear, it’s that this site has the goods. 95pts.”
Matthew Luczy, Wine Advocate, (Aug 2025) – “As noted in the debut Chardonnay bottling from this site, the 2023 Pinot Noir Clarke Ranch exhibits a dark, smoldering, earthy and coniferous aroma, more reminiscent of Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noirs than its North Coast counterparts. The palate is rich, compact and beautifully structured, unfolding into a graceful, slowly swelling, intensely concentrated finish that maintains a gentle vibrancy throughout its background tannin structure, rather than the more assertive forefront of the Porcupine Hill bottling. This is a stunning debut and a uniquely earth-driven addition to the Rhys Portfolio. 95pts.”
