Balance is a buzzword in wine circles these days, especially for pinot noir, winemaker Jeff Brinkman acknowledges, but it's very much in evidence at Rhys Vineyards, a Santa Cruz Mountains winery that specializes in pinot noir.

The Rhys philosophy is to find mountain sites -- most at 1,000 feet or higher -- with a slope, very little topsoil, complex underlying geology and a variety of exposures. "The whole Rhys concept is a site-driven idea," Brinkman says.

He and Rhys owner Kevin Harvey think that the wines should reflect the site; to that end, the vineyards are farmed in essentially the same way and the wines are handled similarly. But the wines display differences, sometimes dramatic ones -- and they share a striking feature. The pinots and the small amounts of chardonnay and syrah that Rhys produces all exhibit incredible power and complexity at modest levels of ripeness. The typical Rhys wine checks in at about 13 percent alcohol, at a time when it's common for California pinot to top 14 or even 15 percent and exhibit overripe flavors.

For some people, that's a tough complex to grasp, Harvey says. "They can't really marry that concept of restraint with intensity."

Harvey, a software entrepreneur and one of the founders of Benchmark Capital, became interested in pinot noir about 20 years ago. He was particularly attracted to the wines of Burgundy and how they expressed the sites where the grapes were grown, demonstrating "this individual sense of place."

Harvey was taken with the earthiness and minerality of Burgundy and started looking for these traits in New World wines. He found what he was looking for in his own Portola Valley backyard. Inspired by pinots from area wineries such as Mount Eden and Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, he planted a small vineyard on his own property.

In 2001, he started buying parcels of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains and now makes wine from five such vineyards; he's planting a sixth near Corralitos. He also owns a vineyard in Anderson Valley, the Mendocino County region where Brinkman worked before coming to Rhys.

Rather than filling the Rhys vineyards with the new clones, or subtypes, of pinot noir that are so popular these days, Harvey and Brinkman are concentrating on heritage selections and cuttings from vines that were imported unofficially some years ago by unnamed vintners. (The latter are widely, and jokingly, referred to as "suitcase clones" because they entered the country in someone's luggage.)

Single-vineyard wines are popular these days, but too many times the winemaking seems to trump whatever character the site might be imparting to the finished product. Not so at Rhys, where the wines are made in pretty much the same manner, but they can taste dramatically different. (The only variables in the reds are the percentage of new oak used for aging and how much of the fruit is destemmed before it goes into the fermentation tank.)

"We didn't want the signature to be of our winemaking," Harvey says. He likens Rhys wines to "staring into a glass of vineyard."

Grapes grow on top of the production tunnels directly underneath the hillside at Rhys Vineyards in Portola Valley, Calif. on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. (Dan
Grapes grow on top of the production tunnels directly underneath the hillside at Rhys Vineyards in Portola Valley, Calif. on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. (Dan Honda/Staff) (Dan Honda)

Harvey's success in the tech world has allowed him to spare no expense when it comes to Rhys. The vineyards are meticulously farmed, and there's continual experimentation. He's also built a state-of-the-art winery tunneled into a hillside off Skyline Boulevard. Harvey declined to say how much it cost: "Hah. No. That's embarrassing."

Although Brinkman is constantly analyzing and testing, the actual winemaking is fairly low-tech, with little intervention. "The more we use technology to look at the wines, the less we do to the wines," he says.

The wines are sold via a mailing list -- and there's a waiting list to get on it. A few restaurants, mostly in San Francisco, carry the wines. Even so, Brinkman acknowledges that the wines are a little controversial among other winemakers and some consumers. Those who favor a style with bigger fruit don't particularly like them (a sentiment expressed among some vintners). But he also says that there are some winemakers on the winery's mailing list, and more than one has referred to the Rhys wines as being "winemakers' kind of wines."

For his part, Harvey still seems a little surprised about the success of Rhys. "I thought," he says, "we would struggle in obscurity."


The wines from the Alpine and Horseshoe vineyards, which are only about 400 yards apart but have different soils and exposures, provide a good snapshot of Rhys' site-driven concept. The 2009 Horseshoe Vineyard Chardonnay ($69) is bright yet rich, and even a little showy. The 2009 Alpine Vineyard Chardonnay ($69) is very precise and steely. Although it's leaner than the Horseshoe, it's also more powerful.
The 2009 Horseshoe Vineyard Pinot Noir ($59) offers a lot of concentration and some floral notes, while the 2009 Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir ($59) is spicier and more powerful. Both also have an earthy, forest-floor character. There's also a pinot from an east-facing block in the Alpine Vineyard known as Swan Terrace; the 2009 ($79) is more lithe and lively than the others, with redder fruit flavors.
The Rhys syrahs (both $49) display cool-climate characteristics of smoke, white pepper and roasted meat. The grapes are picked in November, so there's often a threat of rain. Why make such a late-ripening variety? "To see if it will work," he says with a chuckle.