Pinot Noir Made By Wine Collector Who Discovers Ideal Soil For Greatness

Rhys Mt. Pajaro Vineyard
Photo Credit: Rhys Vineyards

There is nothing as thrilling as seeing some of the most famous Pinot Noir vineyards in the world right after being lucky enough to taste the heavenly wines made from these Grand Cru Burgundy vineyards. The most outstanding Pinot Noir wines in the world have ethereal aromatics that transport the drinker to another realm and in the best vintages, the flavors and textures on the palate are just as exquisite as the nose. No other wine on the planet can compare to these wines, and hence, why Burgundy wine collectors are a breed of their own, who have such an intense obsession with trying to relive another experience of tasting an otherworldly bottle. Their obsession is so strong that they are willing to get their hearts broken multiple times – just like when Pinot Noir is great, it is in a league of its own but when it is bad, the only thing that one can do is dump it down the drain. Since the weather can be drastically inconsistent in Burgundy and even range greatly among the microclimates of various areas, single-vineyard bottlings can be dramatically different depending on the vintage.

Kevin Harvey in the vineyard
Photo Credit: Rhys Vineyards

One man had a mission to find those different expressions of “minerality, tension and complexity” that he loved about Burgundy Pinot Noir wines and remarkably, he found them in a more consistent climate that would always be ideal for Pinot Noir year in and year out. That man is Kevin Harvey – born in California, raised in Houston, Texas and found his way back to California as a software entrepreneur who sold his first upstart company in the late 1980s. Since it was for a relatively small amount of money, as software was not the big business then that it is today, he thought about moving back to Houston as even back then, the cost of living in San Francisco was extraordinarily high. But fate had him meet his future wife who was California through and through, and so, he formed roots in California, pursuing other software ventures as well as delving into his passion for Burgundy wine.

Kevin was never personally impressed with the richer, more plush California Pinot Noir wines that were fashionable when he first got serious about collecting wine, so he kept going back to the outstanding vineyards of Burgundy, spending lots of time with wine producers (who had become friends) explaining what was so special about the top Grand Cru vineyards of their illustrious region: what they call “terroir.” Then, his passion for these stellar wines had him delve into the research of soil depth, composition, structure, chemistry, hydrology and climate, to name a few.

Eventually, he planted a vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which, to his surprise, seemed like the ideal soil for great Pinot Noir.

Santa Cruz Mountains

Mt. Pajaro Vineyard in Santa Cruz Mountains Photo Credit: Rhys Vineyards

It is not easy to impress a Burgundy wine collector as they are some of the most loyal wine drinkers on the planet and no other place can compare. Yet Kevin was intrigued by his research and he knew that it would take years of making one barrel of wine from his planted vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, to see if it was even close. He knew that making this wine in his garage with no background as a winemaker or vineyard grower would not show the site’s full potential and he would be lucky if the wine was even drinkable but it was good and improved over time; he couldn’t believe it. As someone already mindful that living in California was costing him a great deal of money, he was certainly in no hurry to spend significantly more by starting a winery.

Yet he discovered that much of the land where he could plant vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains has around 20 inches of clay soil with fractured rock such as decomposing limestone, with a high cation exchange capacity, allowing nutrients to become available to the vines. These plots were similar to the soils in the Grand Cru sites in Burgundy, where Kevin found the most complex and interesting wines. And since he loved the different expressions of various excellent sites in Burgundy, he was also intrigued by the idea that two vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which were only 400 yards away from each other, could be remarkably different because there have been millions of years of movement between the Pacific Plate, the North American Plate and the Farallon Plate in the area. Hence, the soil is like a layer cake with tens of millions of years of difference between those layers. For example, one vineyard could be on the part of the layer one million years old while another was formed 30 million years ago.

The idea that Kevin could have discovered a place that had the ideal soils, the ability to express a wide range of terroir of “various geologies of the soil,” and an ideal cool mountain climate was too tempting not to take the leap. In 2004, he founded Rhys Vineyards, and by 2007, he had five different Santa Cruz Mountains vineyards in production; today, he has six. During his early Burgundy collecting days, he could have never imagined that not only could he find a place in California that would have the same level of “minerality, tension and complexity” as his beloved Burgundy wines but these vineyards would be able to produce that high level of quality year in and year out, as there were none of the extreme spikes in vintage variation that unfortunately plagues Burgundy.

The True Test 

Rhys Mt. Pajaro Vineyard redwood tree and fog Photo Credit: Rhys Vineyards

Almost 30 years after he planted his first plot of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the mission that drove him all these years has been finally ascertained as he wanted his vineyards to get to an age where they would be in their prime, and therefore, he could finally see if they were capable of having multifaceted varied nuances from site to site. Also, it took time to learn how to manage his vineyards, which are 100% organic today, and he dry farms four of his oldest sites and is currently in the process of converting the others.

After spending all those years standing in the middle of the prestigious vineyards of Burgundy, noting how plots near each other could make wines with entirely different expressions of excellence, he is finally experiencing that for himself with his own vineyards in the much lesser-known area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. A place that will never have that many vineyards with only 1,500 acres planted, compared to Sonoma’s almost 63,000 acres, due to much of the Santa Cruz Mountains being protected by open space trusts and, according to Kevin, one cannot “farm economically” there since it is a patchwork of tiny plots, not making it appealing for big wineries to come in as they can’t have a contiguous 100-acre vineyard.

It is often impossible to see where life is heading as Kevin could have ended up back in Houston after selling his company for a relatively small amount in the ’80s, living an easier life with a lower cost of living. He would have had much more time and money to spend in Burgundy and build an impressive collection. Yet, love for his wife kept him in California and led him to the seemingly impossible: discovering an excellent situation in which he could make the wines he cherished yet with terroir expressions of their own. It hasn’t happened overnight and he didn’t know if the day would ever come, but it is here, and he is far from easing up on his mission as he is ready to take it to the next level.

***Link to original Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathrinetodd/2024/04/07/pinot-noir-made-by-wine-collector-who-discovers-ideal-soil-for-greatness/

Bearwallow Vineyard in Anderson Valley
Photo Credit: Rhys Vineyards

Rhys Vineyards has also acquired a vineyard in Anderson Valley, California, a place prized for its cool climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to make vibrant still wines and top sparkling wines on par with Champagne. Unlike the vineyards he purchased in the Santa Cruz Mountains, this plot of land already came with six acres of Pinot Noir already planted but he planted an additional 25 acres of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. His vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains have been planted with carefully selected clones of the grapes, as that was another facet of top-quality wine he learned from Burgundy producers. Then, he used a field selection from his vineyards in the Santa Cru Mountains to plant the rest of the Anderson Valley plot.

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Chardonnay, Anderson Valley AVA, California: 100% Chardonnay from the single vineyard Bearwallow, so even though it is listed as a regional wine, it is actually a single vineyard. Pretty floral notes with a wonderful mineral streak with lemon curd and peach cobbler flavors and a tangy acidity.

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Bearwallow Vineyard, Chardonnay, Anderson Valley AVA, California: 100% Chardonnay from the top grapes coming from Bearwallow vineyard. Bright lemon zest on the nose with a fierce stony minerality that has lots of drive and focus on the extremely long finish, leaving notes of sea spray and broken slate in one’s head.

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, California: 100% Chardonnay coming from three of the Rhys vineyards in Santa Cruz Mountains. More fleshy stone fruit flavors that are beautifully balanced by the electric acidity with hints of baking spices that has a wonderful expression of purity of fruit that is wrapped up in an overall elegance.

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Mt. Pajaro Vineyard, Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, California: 100% Chardonnay from Mt. Pajaro vineyard. A stunning Chardonnay that gives an exquisite expression of the exotic yet refined structural quality of a white orchard with aromas of citrus blossom, green mango and passion fruit with lots of tension and verve.

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley AVA, California: 100% Pinot Noir from the single vineyard Bearwallow, so even though it is listed as a regional wine it is actually a single vineyard. Effusive bouquet of aromas emanate from the glass with lilacs, shaved nutmeg and fresh morels with bright rhubarb flavors wrapped in very fine tannins.  

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Bearwallow Vineyard, Pinot Noir, Anderson AVA, California: 100% Pinot Noir from the top grapes coming from Bearwallow vineyard. Deep, multilayered wine with tree bark and forest floor that has rich flavors of black cherry and more substantial tannins and an alluring silky texture.

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Mt. Pajaro Vineyard,
Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains
Photo Credit: Cathrine Todd

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, California: 100% Pinot Noir from six of the Rhys vineyards in Santa Cruz Mountains. An aristocratic wine that still has lots of generosity with layers of juicy red and black fruit with deliciously delectable notes of cocoa powder and candied wild violets yet it has an addictive savory quality that is brought over the top by the finely etched tannins.

2021 Rhys Vineyards, Mt. Pajaro Vineyard, Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, California: 100% Pinot Noir from Mt. Pajaro vineyard. A wine that leaves one speechless as it has an incredible depth of concentration with a mid-palate filled with brambly fruit that is multi-dimensional with sage, anise seeds, crushed limestone and smoldering earth dancing about in one’s head with an extraordinarily long, expressive finish that is lifted by marked acidity.

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