Rhys Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains Alesia 2016

94 points Jeb Dunnuck: "A step up over the Anderson Valley release, the 2016 Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains Alesia gets fruit from five of the six single vineyards (no Skyline fruit) and it offers a sensational bouquet of ripe cherries, currants, rose petals, conifer trees, and sappy flowers. Complex, medium-bodied, elegant, and seamless, it’s a beautiful, beautiful wine that unquestionably plays in the same league as the single vineyards. Drink: 2018-2028. (2/14/19)"

91+ points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "The 2016 Santa Cruz Mountains bottling under the Alesia label is also nicely cool and vibrant, with the same alcohol level of 12.9 percent of the Anderson Valley example. The wine is a bit more black fruity and quite a bit more mineral in profile than the lovely Anderson Valley cuvée, offering up a fine bouquet of sweet dark berries, black cherries, woodsmoke, a hint of gamebird, raw cocoa and a superb base of stony minerality. On the palate the wine is precise, full and marvelously tangy, with a fine mid-palate depth, lovely backend mineral drive, moderate tannins and a long, complex and very classy finish. This does not have the same dimension as the top Santa Cruz Mountain bottlings of pinot under the Rhys label, but it is very easy to see that they all share the same vineyard pedigree. Just a beautiful bottle. 2018-2045. (Jul/Aug 2018)"