Alpine Vineyard, Chardonnay, 2021

Name: Alpine Vineyard, Chardonnay
Brand: Rhys Vineyards
Price: 572.74 GBP

Available Vintages

all 2019 2021 2022

justerini & brooks tasting note

Alpine is the mother block for today’s Rhys program and source of all massale selection across the rest of the sites. It’s a beautiful site that sits within the fog line which invariably to some degree affects flowering and the final yield the site provides. Typicity here is oyster shells, olive brine and the sea, whose breezes are funneled across the site almost constantly. The 2021 is a wine of sleek finesse that opens out across the mid-palate before tapering away into a long intense mineral finish. It is so often thus, a teardrop of flavour, yet in 2021, there’s another gear to this – a level of precision, poise and detail that sets it apart. The finish is haunting, the elements straining to reveal themselves like lasers inscribing flavour on the palate.

critic reviews

96+/100Matthew Luczy,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Another spectacular white wine from Rhys, the 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard is a fascinating counterpoint to the Horseshoe bottling. Of the two, the Alpine is the more aromatically dazzling out of the gate, with all manner of herbal, floral, chalky, citrus and orchard fruit aromas immediately jumping from the glass. Texturally, the palate shows a graceful, floating quality that juxtaposes the mid-palate assertiveness of the Horseshoe. The finish is long and spherical, concluding on a distinctive note of spearmint and menthol, with spice notes appearing and building with extended oxygen exposure. This is a fantastic effort all around and one that, as with its somewhat nearby neighbor, should be aged for another five years and eagerly consumed over the next 10.

DRINKING WINDOW 2029 - 2039

date of review 04/2024

98/100Antonio Galloni,Vinous

The 2021 Chardonnay Alpine Vineyard is so strikingly different from the Horseshoe. It offers tremendous concentration and pure power, a sort of seamless intensity that builds and then carries through to its substantial, resonant finish. Citrus confit, dried flowers, mint and chamomile linger. What a wine.

DRINKING WINDOW 2025 - 2032

date of review 11/2023