I signed up for their mailing list on their web site and received an unfortunate response:
9/19/11
"We have added you to our waiting list. We currently sell all of our wine to our active mailing list. We estimate that there is a 1-2 year wait before you will be able to purchase wine and move onto our active mailing list."
A year later it was more of the same:
9/20/12
"We would like to thank you for your interest in our wines and for your patience. Unfortunately, we do not have enough wine to add new customers to our mailing list at this time. We do expect this situation to improve by early next year. We will be in touch in late January, hopefully with an email offering for you to order from our Spring 2013 Release!"
It all turned around this year:
1/15/2013
"It's been almost two years since we've been able to offer wine to customers on our waiting list and we are excited to finally be able reward your patience. This offering of 2010 Rhys Bearwallow Pinot Noir is a great introduction to Rhys and we believe it is our best Anderson Valley bottling to date."
They allowed/allotted me to order 4 bottles of 2010 Rhys Bearwallow Pinot Noir at $60 a pop. I begrudgingly purchase special wines in that price ranges on occasion, but rarely one's I've never tried. 4 untasted and expensive bottles seemed extremely risky, and probably stupid, but it was my first allotment, and I didn't want them to forget about me in the future. I also put 2 bottles of 2010 Rhys Family Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir on my wish list, but was informed later that none of my wishes could be fulfilled.
The bottles arrived yesterday and we eagerly tried one last night. It tasted good, but young, and dissappointing. I reviewed the accompanying documentation to find: "We recommend cellaring all of our wines for 5+ years to reveal their full personality...". 5 minutes of in glass aeration does not equate to 5 years of in bottle aging. I marked the other 3 to open in 2018 and put them in the frig. I guess we'll know how ideal it is in 5 years, 7 years after reading about them. I'm not certain I'll purchase any from the next allotment; we'll see how silly I am then.
A year later it was more of the same:
9/20/12
"We would like to thank you for your interest in our wines and for your patience. Unfortunately, we do not have enough wine to add new customers to our mailing list at this time. We do expect this situation to improve by early next year. We will be in touch in late January, hopefully with an email offering for you to order from our Spring 2013 Release!"
It all turned around this year:
1/15/2013
"It's been almost two years since we've been able to offer wine to customers on our waiting list and we are excited to finally be able reward your patience. This offering of 2010 Rhys Bearwallow Pinot Noir is a great introduction to Rhys and we believe it is our best Anderson Valley bottling to date."
They allowed/allotted me to order 4 bottles of 2010 Rhys Bearwallow Pinot Noir at $60 a pop. I begrudgingly purchase special wines in that price ranges on occasion, but rarely one's I've never tried. 4 untasted and expensive bottles seemed extremely risky, and probably stupid, but it was my first allotment, and I didn't want them to forget about me in the future. I also put 2 bottles of 2010 Rhys Family Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir on my wish list, but was informed later that none of my wishes could be fulfilled.
The bottles arrived yesterday and we eagerly tried one last night. It tasted good, but young, and dissappointing. I reviewed the accompanying documentation to find: "We recommend cellaring all of our wines for 5+ years to reveal their full personality...". 5 minutes of in glass aeration does not equate to 5 years of in bottle aging. I marked the other 3 to open in 2018 and put them in the frig. I guess we'll know how ideal it is in 5 years, 7 years after reading about them. I'm not certain I'll purchase any from the next allotment; we'll see how silly I am then.
