As international as Pinot Noir may get, few would argue that France's Burgundy remains undisputedly the spiritual home of the heartbreak grape - so named for its delicate nature and therefore incredible tediousness in cultivating.

Yet, "incredibly difficult" has never really stopped folks from trying their hand at this Gordian knot of sorts. Much less a personality whose entire life's success has been built on taking immense risk in the pursuit of astronomical outcomes. 

Meet Kevin Harvey.

Harvey had grew up in California and then Texas, before eventually graduating college with a degree in electrical engineering - a fairly run of the mill life thus far. Yet it was what Harvey would do thereafter that would put him right at the top. He would go on to successfully found two software companies, and upon their acquisitions, eventually help co-found Benchmark Capital, one of the world's greatest performing venture capital firms. To give some sense of how incredibly Benchmark Capital was, it was the VC that picked out the likes of eBay, Uber, Twitter and Dropbox right at their early innings.

And so if anyone knew what "pursuit" was, Harvey was probably the guy. And when the parallels are drawn to winemaking, particularly with Pinot Noir, all of a sudden it doesn't seem all too strange that Harvey would find himself drawn to the challenge.

"I first fell in love with Pinot; actually, with California Pinot. But then quickly moved to Burgundy and became sort of obsessed with this idea: Why is some Pinot better than others?" explains Harvey.

Pinot Noir, the heartbreak grape.

This curiosity led Harvey in 1995 to begin planting Pinot Noir vines in his Woodside, California, backyard. With these 35 original vines, Harvey would vinify them in his garage and much to his surprise, the wines turned out really good. As he continued on his research, he would eventually - as many others have, and will - be taken to Burgundy. "If you look at the pattern of the slope of the Cote d’Or, all the Grand Crus are sort of in the same zone. Some people believe that is a climate zone but it’s really not. It’s a zone of soil depth and fractured rock. Above the Grand Crus is rockier and below the Grand Crus are deeper, deeper clay soils. The biggest thing that effects quality is something you can never change, which is the site [and therefore] the soil. Pinot needs a somewhat perfect balance of clay and fractured rock. Clay for more of the fruit and the rocks for more of the structure." says Harvey.

The chalky soils of Rhys' Alpine Vineyard.

Armed with the stellar results of his early experiments, Harvey would go in search of a Burgundian vineyard in California. Where many vineyards had sat on the valley floors which featured clay soils, Harvey would focus on the Santa Cruz mountains, which he discovered featured clay topsoil bolstered by a foundation of rocky substrate - the sort found in Burgundy, and the result of geological tectonic plate movements millions of years ago along the San Andreas Fault. Sat between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific coast, the Santa Cruz mountain ranges had historically been home to several prominent wineries, and yet had somehow always sat in the shadows of Napa Valley and Sonoma. Yet the allure of the Santa Cruz mountains were further accentuated by the fact that the steep slopes along the mountain range had allowed for an array of diverse micro-climates and terroirs all within a short distance from one area to the next. And so with the utmost commitment to terroir expression, Harvey would establish Rhys Vineyards in 2001 - remarkably nothing particularly unusual for a man whose principal activity centered around the creation of a multitude of big projects.

Within the span of 5 years, Harvey would identify four sites around the Santa Cruz mountains, and along with the parcel behind his house, have them become the bedrock for Rhys Vineyards' Pinot Noirs, and subsequently Chardonnays and Syrahs. The 'original' vineyard that started it all - the Home Vineyard - was developed from the initial test vines that Harvey had planted behind his home, now a 1.3 acre parcel that sits at 450-500 feet in elevation, with terroir characterised by sandstone soils that allow for a more earthy and mineral, layered complexity in the Pinot Noir produced from it. Just across from the Home Vineyard is the Family Farm Vineyard, featuring alluvial sand and clay, which allows for more aromatic intensity, and floral Pinot Noirs that demonstrate great ageing potential. Some of the other further flung yet greatly notable sites are the Alpine Vineyard (1,200-1,490 feet in elevation, incredibly steep and chalky, producing highly mineral Pinot Noir), the Horseshoe Vineyard (shale and limestone soils, producing Pinot Noir with tension and focus), the Skyline Vineyard (amongst California's highest vineyards at 2,360 feet in elevation, with ancient soils and exotic aromatics and vibrant minerality), and finally the Bearwallow Vineyard (steep slopes, fractured shale, quartz and sandstone, producing wines of expressive fruit and salinity).

Given that site selection for the dedicated purpose of terroir expression is the priority for Harvey, it's worth noting that there are commonalities across Rhys' vineyards - poor soils which forces the vines dig deep and thereby embody the terroir better, and at the same time causing the effect of naturally limiting yields, which in turn results in highly concentrated fruit that also ripens early and thus keeps sugars (and therefore alcohol levels) in check to ensure finesse. The sites are all elevated between 400-2,300 feet, with cool microclimates, and yet still allow for distinctiveness in their soils whereby quality and expressiveness across fruit harvested from the various sites are guaranteed, yet they are still able to showcase different terroirs. The whole idea was for Rhys Vineyards to be an exploration and collection of amongst the best American terroirs for Pinot.

The incredible view from the Horseshoe Vineyard.

The vineyards were initially farmed biodynamically, and yet was discontinued after several years when it was determined that the vineyards had more than sufficient biodiversity as is. The team at Rhys supporting Harvey had also crucially decided that instead of planting each Pinot Noir clone in its own segmented block (and thus each block of vines was dedicated to just one clone), they would employ the use of massale selection where they would simply intersperse 15 different Pinot Noir clones throughout the vineyard - a practice that is unsurprisingly inspired by Burgundy.

“Burgundy has all the answers if you know to ask the right questions.” says Harvey.

Once harvesting is complete, the fruit is taken to Rhys' custom-built cave winery up in the Santa Cruz mountains (no more garage winemaking!), where the team adheres to a minimalist winemaking approach. All movement of the fruit and juices are done via gravity to remain as gentle as possible. Most of the fermentation is done whole cluster, which is crushed manually by foot. The yeast is of course natural and fermentation spontaneous, with the wines are subsequently aged in Burgundy barrels (of air-dried French oak staves, so as to reduce the influence of wood that might distract from the terroir), particularly limiting the use of new oak. All of Rhys' practices are aligned once again to the goal of accentuating terroir expression. 

It is thus only to be expected that Rhys vinifies and bottles each vineyard's wines separately, with each bottle designed to capture and offer to fans a total immersion into a single vineyards' terroir.

Having operated for over two decades now, Harvey remains dedicated in his search for additional vineyards to add to the Rhys stable - not all that different from a venture capitalist hunting for the next unicorn to add to its portfolio. More recently new vineyards such as the Mt Pajaro Vineyard, as well as the Anderson Valley Vineyard - the first outside of the Santa Cruz mountains, had been added to the Rhys family, with also now Chenin Blanc being produced by way of the Mt Pajaro addition.

‘Everything we do is meant to enhance site expression, with each site driving what is in the glass.’

Now with all that said, we're going to give one of Rhys Vineyards most sought after expression a go - this is the 2019 Rhys Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir.

PS. Big shoutout to 67 Pall Mall Singapore for serving this incredibly sought after American Pinot Noir icon at its post-VinExpo Trade Social that happened in end-May 2025. Leave it to one of the world's finest private wine clubs to make sure that its house pour was absolutely legendary! For every wine person out there, if you're not a member of 67 Pall Mall, what are you even doing! The club room's got a 1,000 bottle wine list by the glass (and 6,000 by the bottle!) with some of the most incredible and rare expressions on pour by the glass! Not to mention an incredible ambience and hospitality that is so top notch it actually rivals the insane wine list. Absolutely go check them out.

Wine Review: Rhys Vineyards Alpine Vineyard Pinot Noir

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Ruby

Aroma: It blooms with a deep yet fresh earthiness of freshly tilled soil, closely backed by raspberry and blackberry preserves. It's perfumed and expressive, with a great depth and suppleness about it. It's well-saturated with this almost juiciness, outlined by a distinct and bold spring water minerality.

Taste: Medium-bodied here, incredibly plush and well-saturated, the supple and juicy body is filled in with a concentrated bramble of blackberry, blueberry and raspberry preserve. There's a side of savouriness of dried herbs that comes through as well, with this streak of salinity that comes through. It's almost as if the dark and red berries were salt preserved like a caper.

Finish: It's rich and plush into the finish, with the red and dark berries carrying through seamlessly. It's a clean and seamless, really plush finish with a chalkiness that lingers. The tannins are firm yet fine and supple, so giving as to allow for the juiciness of the body to fully blossom.

My Thoughts

This was a really beautiful Pinot Noir expression - the elegance and finesse is just beautiful, expressive and detailed, yet at the same time supple and firm, with good saturation and concentration. It's just so juicy! Yet at the same time it's garnished with these multi-angled complexity of minerality, savouriness of herbs and chalkiness that lingers. It feels incredibly naturalistic, as if you were walking through the grass meadows along an alpine mountain with the fresh and crisp air and delicate meadowy scents. It's harmonious and really evocative and vivid, so much so that you almost don't notice how well-structured it is, with the really supple and fine tannins that so deftly stretch like a hot air balloon being filled up, accommodating perfectly the juicy bloom of the body. This isn't a Pinot that shouts at you, instead it's alluring and quietly confident, fully waiting for you to be drawn in to discover it. Really beautiful and worth every bit of time spent appreciating it!