2017 Rhys Chardonnay Mt. Pajaro Vineyard

In 1995, Kevin Harvey, after nearly a decade of studying wine, viticulture, enology, and geology, dug holes in his backyard in Woodside, California, next to the Santa Cruz Mountains, and planted 30 pinot noir vines. For the next couple of decades, he expanded his digging to plant seven small estate vineyards scattered about the Santa Cruz Mountains American Viticultural Area. He officially launched Rhys Vineyards in 2004, and it is now among the most-respected producers of pinot noir, chardonnay, and syrah in the appellation and even in the state. Farming is organic, dry-farmed (no irrigation), and practicing biodynamic.

Mt. Pajaro is one of the seven Rhys estate vineyards. It’s in the southern part of the Santa Cruz Mountains, at 900 feet of elevation and seven miles from Monterey Bay. The vineyard has a steep 20% slope and shale soils with thin topsoil. For the winemaking, whole clusters were pressed into barrels, where they naturally fermented without racking or battonage. The wine aged for 12 months in French oak barrels, 15% of which were new.

This is taut, mountain-grown chardonnay with crystalline citrus fruit, floral notes, and a distinctly salty minerality. It’s both concentrated and racy, and does it all at just 12.7% alcohol. The intensely-coiled fierceness of its youth has, with the extra years in bottle, evolved into a bright richness without any sense of honeyed sweetness or tiredness. In short, it’s a great, aged Santa Cruz Mountains chardonnay from a great vineyard. Drink it, not too cold, with pan-roasted halibut, mushroom risotto, or an aged Comté cheese.