Culturebox: Eureka!

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drink Eureka! The pinch-me-brilliant wines of Rhys Vineyards. By Mike Steinberger Posted Thursday, March 24, 2011, at 10:33 AM ET In a warehouse near San Francisco last year, I had a eureka moment. It was there that I finally tasted the wines of Rhys Vineyards, which had been the object of rapturous praise. I instantly understand why: Not only were they the best New World pinot noirs I'd ever encountered, they were shockingly close in quality to the finest red Burgundies. I recently had another opportunity to sample the Rhys portfolio and was floored again. And it's not just the pinots: Rhys also makes amazing syrahs and chardonnays. I can't get these wines out of my head. Evidently, other people can't, either: Rhys sells only via mailing list, and it is full. So why am I telling you about Rhys? For one thing, there is a waiting list, and they're taking names. More importantly, I think Rhys is the most exciting story on the American wine scene in a long time, not least because of the speed with which it has succeeded: incredibly, it sold its first vintage just five years ago. Rhys is a classic case of one man's obsession run splendidly amok: Kevin Harvey, a tall, genial 46-year-old Silicon Valley software entrepreneur caught the wine bug in the early 1990s. It soon mutated into a Burgundy fixation, and in 1995 he decided to dabble in fantasy by planting some pinot noir vines--Burgundy's signature red grape variety-- in the backyard of his Woodside, Calif., home, set in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Imagine drilling for oil in your lawn and immediately hitting a gusher; that's essentially what happened with Harvey. He vinified the grapes in his garage, and the wine turned out to be shockingly good (he insists he had no clue his lawn could cough up such quality; he says it was "pure serendipity"). He had been thinking about starting a winery in Sonoma, but it now occurred to him that there might be gold in the mountains behind his house. To continue reading, click here. Mike Steinberger is Slate's wine columnist. He can be reached at slatewine@gmail.com. His website is winediarist.com. Follow him on Twitter. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Why the Uprising in Syria Is So Troubling In Praise of the NCAA's Biggest Ball Hogs Is Congress Still Citing Its "Constitutional Authority" in All New Bills?	Advertisement
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