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  • Country ranking ?

    436
  • Producer ranking ?

    11
  • Decanting time

    1h30min
  • When to drink

    now to 2025

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The Story

Family Farm Vineyard is the result of special partnership between neighbors. Realizing the potential of its loamy clay soil and eastern aspect, in 2002 the Sletten, Martin, Sullivan and Harvey families decided to convert this former Christmas tree farm into a vineyard. The weather is very similar to our Home Vineyard, while the alluvial sand and clay soils are unique. Like many of the best vineyards in Burgundy, the East-facing aspect shelters the vines from the warmer afternoon sun, allowing the grapes to retain freshness and aromatic dimension.

Family Farm wines are powerful yet elegant with red and black fruit, and a distinctive stalky complexity that becomes integrated and floral with age. While they are typically charming and forward on release, they also age extremely well. The first vintage, 2004, has only recently reached full maturity.

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Vintage 2009

Napa 2009 Vintage Report   “We consider the vintage 2009 was the start of a three year cooling cycle (2009, 2010, 2011) that ended with the 2012 vintage.  If We look at the big picture of the decade We see warming each year from 2006, 2007 and then 2008.  2009 then started a cooling cycle where the vintages were progressively cooler and wetter. Out of these vintages the 2011 was the coolest and wettest. We are pleased to see the vintage 2012 is breaking this cycle.”

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Written Notes

Distinct floral and spice notes add nuance to the elegant and airy red berry fruit aromas that lead to rich, supple and forward middle weight flavors that possess fine detail and purity to the delicious and beautifully long finish. Among the Rhys wines, the Family Farm and Skyline Vineyards are those which are built more along the lines of finesse than power. – Allen Meadows, Burghound.com 91p

  • 91p
The Family Farm vineyard lies below the other vineyards at lower altitude, approximately 120 meters, therefore within the quite rare appellation San Mateo AVA, rather than Santa Cruz Mountains (which is created for vineyards above 240 meters of altitude). The soil here is less rocky, clay loam and alluvial, and in combination with the slightly warmer climate here, the wine is richer, fuller, more fruit forward and less structured than the other wines in the linup. I was a bit sursprised when winemaker Jeff told me that this wine is whole cluster fermented, still there’s no signs of bitternet or greenness – the spicy and earthy notes from the stems only shows after some time in the glass. Instead it’s the ripe fruit flavor that hits you, dark cherries and even blackberries at first, with air some more light red fruit nuances, as well as a fine note of orange peel. It’s a rich and in that sense very Californian pinot with ripe tannins, still with a fine acidity and a lingerling, deliscious aftertaste.
  • 92p
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Information

Origin

Santa Cruz Mountains, California

Vintage Quality

Above Average

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

No Potential

Fake factory

None
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