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WINEMAKING only three full-time workers to handle production, the wine club, shipping and what little hospitality the winery conducts. But, in a bit of a paradox, having all the bells and whistles also allows Brinkman not to do much to the wines. "The more technology we seem to use, the less wine work we do," Brinkman says. He's not tempted to do things prophylactically because he can track data and trends so closely. "You can keep your hands off it," he says. That's all in keeping with the Rhys philosophy of focusing on the vineyards. Harvey became interested in wine about 20 years ago. He was particularly fascinated with the earthiness and minerality of Burgundy and started looking for these traits in New World wines. Inspired by Pinots from Santa Cruz Mountains wineries such as Mount Eden and Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, Harvey planted a small vineyard on his own property and found the characteristics he was looking for in his own backyard. "This caused me to hatch the vision of Rhys," he says. In 2001, he started buying parcels that he thought were interesting geologically in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He now has six such vineyard properties as well as one in the Anderson Valley, where Brinkman used to work. Rather than filling the Rhys vineyards with Dijon and other newer clones, Harvey and Brinkman are concentrating on heritage selections and cuttings from "suitcase clones" brought to California by unnamed vintners. About 16 such selections were planted at Rhys' Alpine Vineyard and, after seeing how they performed, Harvey and Brinkman decided to concentrate on eight. Many of the vines for new plantings are propagated from this mother block. At the winery, most of the wines are made in pretty much the same fashion. The only variables in the reds, for example, are the percentage of new oak used for aging and how much of the fruit is destemmed. "We didn't want the signature to be of our winemaking," Harvey says. He likens Rhys wines to "staring into a glass of vineyard." kelly mcm an us photo graphy Skyline Vineyard (left) and Horseshoe Vineyard (right) are in the Santa Cruz Mountains, while Bearwallow, (center) is in Anderson Valley. wine S & vine S M AY 20 13 53