Rhys Vineyards

Horseshoe Vineyard, Chardonnay, 2019

Name: Horseshoe Vineyard, Chardonnay
Brand: Rhys Vineyards
Price: 553.93 GBP

96/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

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in bond

portfolio

2019
50cl
DP
£70.70
2019
12x50cl
DP
£848.58
2019
75cl
DP
£113.51
2019
6x75cl
DP
£681.13

Broking

2019
6x75cl
DP
£553.93

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

Horseshoe 2019 is a wine of real structure and weight but also great concentration and energy – a combination of power and persistence that is very true to the wines from this site. The soils here are around 8 million years older than the Alpine vineyard, being composed of Monterey shale, a brittle, friable, shale so light it feels like balsa wood in the hand. Its structure makes it very easy for the roots to penetrate so Kevin and Jeff are finding exponential gains relative to vine age from this vineyard. This 2019 has a mineral smokiness on the nose, not unlike an aroma of slate, then thyme, yellow peach and fresh lemon, orange blossom and aromatic white flowers that mingle with a salty smoky stoniness on the palate. Superb.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

96/100

Antonio Galloni,

Vinous

The 2019 Chardonnay Horseshoe Vineyard is laced with the essence of crushed rocks, white pepper, orchard fruit, white flowers, chalk and mint. It is a bit less forthcoming than the Alpine Chardonnay. Saline notes build into the palate staining finish. This classically austere young Chardonnay just needs time in bottle. Tasted next to the Alpine, the Horseshoe has more mid-palate weight and feeling of phenolic intensity. The differences between the two are remarkable considering the sites are just 400 yards apart. The Horseshoe is planted on Monterey shale, while the soils at Alpine are Purisima, a formation that is about 8 million years younger. Such is the complexity of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

drinking window 2024 - 2034

date of review 05/2022

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abv:

12.5%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.