History
Harvey had wanted southern-range ground for years, drawn by clay-loam over oceanic sediment. The orchard sat at about 900 feet and seven miles from Monterey Bay, a ratio the estate judged ideal for Pinot and Chardonnay. Apples preceded vines here, though Corralitos already had Pinot specialists in Alfaro Family and Windy Oaks. The planting date is unsettled on the estate's own page, which gives 2013 in its data table and 2014 to 2015 in its narrative; an importer sheet says 2011, a since-retired Rhys page put a sparkling block shared with Bearwallow at 2010 without establishing that the block stood here, and a debut 2016 Chenin Blanc argues against the latest of those dates. The 2017s were the first Pinot Noir and Chardonnay designates, released in spring 2020; the fruit also feeds the Alesia Santa Cruz Mountains bottlings alongside Alpine and Horseshoe.
The Site
18.81 planted acres inside a fifty acre property, the other 31.19 unplanted, running 750 to 980 feet and facing northwest and southeast. The name comes from the ridge beside it. Here the San Andreas splinters into a web of smaller faults, and the geology shifts fast across the slope. Well-drained clay topsoil lies over brown and black shale and sandstone, mapped as the Miocene and Oligocene shale of the Mount Pajaro area and unlike the strata at Alpine or Horseshoe. Lower and closer to the sea than Alpine, Horseshoe or Skyline, it is dry farmed under organic practices.
Vines and Blocks
Pinot Noir covers 11.13 acres, Chardonnay 5.81, Chenin Blanc 0.94, Riesling 0.93 and sparkling selections 0.86. The Pinot is a massale drawn from the best experimental blocks at Alpine, the Chardonnay three field selections, the Chenin clone 982, the Riesling German material: 49AS, 1089, 1090 and 1091. The sparkling parcel breaks the pattern: Champagne Chardonnay selections rather than the California heritage material Rhys uses for still wine, on a cold northwest-facing slope, following a west-facing block at Bearwallow. Spacing runs 3.5 feet by 2 out to 3.5 by 3.5, matched to Skyline's tightest layout, so the vineyard is hand-farmed; only Skyline and Bearwallow's Porcupine Hill had carried vines this close. Blocks run a fifth of an acre to two acres, VSP trellised and single Guyot pruned. None carry names.
The Wines
Rhys bottles Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc designates plus a vintage Blanc de Blancs off the sparkling block, made with Rodolphe Peters of Champagne Pierre Peters and given the longest lees ageing in the house's sparkling range. The 2017 Pinot Noir had a five day cold soak, native yeast fermentation with foot treading and eighteen months in 25 percent new oak. A cocoa or mocha finish is the marker the estate claims for the site; Antonio Galloni read the 2019 Pinot as darker and more incisively tannic than the rest of the Santa Cruz Mountains range. Ceritas struck a deal in 2023 to become the first outside buyer of Rhys's Santa Cruz Mountains fruit, and makes a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir from massale and Swan material, fermented in steel.