History
The thirty-five vines grew to a quarter acre once Harvey talked his wife Catherine into giving up more of the garden, and the planting expanded in 1998 and again in 2007, when he acquired the adjoining hillside. The hobby turned systematic: convinced the Santa Cruz Mountains could produce the soil-driven Pinot Noir he admired in Burgundy, Harvey assembled the estate through the early 2000s, Family Farm close by, then the mountain sites at Alpine, Horseshoe and Skyline, with Bearwallow following in Anderson Valley. The first commercial vintage was 2004, when only Home, Family Farm and Alpine were bearing; the debut 2004 Home Vineyard Pinot Noir came to a single barrel, and the winery's own newsletter recorded the frustration of having too little to offer the list. All five original Santa Cruz Mountains sites were in production by 2007.
The Site
The vineyard lies at 450 to 500 feet on a southwest-facing slope in the eastern foothills of the range, low ground by Rhys standards on an estate that climbs to 2,360 feet at Skyline. The soil is what the garage wine revealed: decomposed sandstone of the Whiskey Hill formation under clay-loam topsoil. The parcel sits at the eastern margin of the appellation in San Mateo County, and the labels have reflected it: early releases carried the San Mateo County appellation, while later vintages are labeled Santa Cruz Mountains. Farming follows the estate's organic program.
Vines and Blocks
Pinot Noir only. The 2007 hillside acreage went in at high density on four by four-and-a-half foot spacing and low-vigor 420A rootstock, and the vineyard is a field selection rather than a set of nursery blocks: Swan, Pommard and Wädenswil heritage material alongside Dijon 115 and 777, plus roughly ten unregistered suitcase selections. The original plantings are the oldest vines in the Rhys portfolio.
The Wines
Rhys bottles a Home Vineyard Pinot Noir in nearly every vintage from the oldest vines (frost and a failed flowering erased 2005), sold through the mailing list in whatever quantity 1.37 acres allows. Winemaking is the house method: native yeast, whole clusters trodden by foot in proportions that reached 100 percent in 2015 and 50 percent in 2022, and restrained new French oak. The wine typically runs earthy and fine-boned, powdery aromatics over red and black fruit, mid-weight structure carrying the mineral drive Harvey first tasted in 1995, and it is built for the cellar rather than the release date.