2018 Aeris Centennial Mountain Bianco
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com 4/30/2021
Beautiful lemon, tangerine, honey, green herbs, and white flower notes emerge from the 2018 Carricante Bianco Centennial Mountain Vineyard, a terrific, richer styled, medium-bodied white with notable balance, nicely integrated acidity, and a clean, crisp finish. A step up over the 2017, it’s another exotic, singular wine from this team that offers loads of character. It’s terrific today, yet I see no reason it shouldn’t evolve for at least 2-4 years, although I have no experience with aged examples of this variety. 2021 – 2025. 92.
John Gilman, View From the Cellar, March-April 2021 #92
The 2018 Bianco “Centennial Mountain Vineyard” from Kevin Harvey’s new Aeris project is composed entirely of Carricante. The 2018 comes in at an even twelve percent octane and offers up a superb aromatic constellation of pear, lemon blossoms, lavender, a dollop of bergamot, stony soil tones, a deft touch of vanillin oak and hints in the upper register of green olive notes that may arrive more fully with further bottle age. On the palate the wine is pure, full- bodied and rock solid at the core, with a great girdle of acidity, fine mineral drive and grip and a long, nascently complex and perfectly balanced finish. This is flat out great juice, which is delicious today, but clearly will continue to blossom and grow with bottle age. I do not have a sense of how ageworthy Carricante will be from California, but all of the constituent components seem in place for this wine to easily last fifteen to twenty years in the cellar. Time will tell. 2021-2040+? 94.
2018 Aeris Centennial Mountain Barbera
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com 4/30/2021
Lots of ripe darker berry fruits as well as violets, candied citrus, and floral notes emerge from the 2018 Barbera Centennial Mountain Vineyard, another perfectly balanced, impeccably made wine you’re going to love to drink. Medium-bodied, with beautiful fruit, plenty of underlying complexity and earthy nuances, ripe tannins, and outstanding length, drink bottles over the coming 3-4 years. 2021 – 2025. 91.
John Gilman, View From the Cellar, March-April 2021 #92
The 2018 vintage of Barbera from Aeris is a ripe customer, coming in at 14.5 percent alcohol in this year. Despite its octane, the wine is beautifully pure and precise on the nose, wafting from the glass in a complex blend of black cherries, woodsmoke, a nice touch of nuttiness, a lovely base of soil, gentle balsamic tones, a touch of oak and a floral topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and transparent in personality, with a good core of fruit, fine focus and grip, tangy acids, moderate tannins and a long, complex and gently warm finish. This is an excellent wine and really balanced impeccably for its octane; it will age long and gracefully, though I expect it many bottles will be drunk up in its blush of youth. 2021-2040+. 92.
2018 Aeris Centennial Mountain Bricco Rosso
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com 4/30/2021
The lighter ruby-hued 2018 Bricco Rosso Centennial Mountain Vineyard offers up a pretty, Nebbiolo-like bouquet of mulled cherries, dried herbs, licorice, and flowers. Beautifully complex and elegant, it’s medium-bodied on the palate and has light, silky yet present tannins, a wonderful core of sweet fruit, and a great finish. It’s like a Barbaresco mixed with a Red Burgundy. The blend is 50% Nebbiolo, 15% each of Nerello Mascalese, Carignan, and Primitivo, and the final 5% Barbera. I don’t think there’s anyone in California doing Italian varieties better than Kevin Harvey and his team at Rhys (who are behind the Aeris wines). 93 .
John Gilman, View From the Cellar, March-April 2021 #92
The 2018 Bricco Rosso bottling from Aeris is composed from a cépages of fifty percent Nebbiolo, fifteen percent each of Nerello Mascalese, Carignan and Primitivo and five percent of Barbera. The wine offers up a deep and complex bouquet of red and black cherries, sweet dark berries, a hint of chocolate, a gentle touch of fresh herb tones, a hint of curry, a classy framing of cedar and a spicy topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and nicely ripe, with great mineral undertow (particularly for fairly young vines!), a lovely core of fruit, firm, chewy tannins and a long, complex and very well balanced finish. This too is a touch riper than I would like ideally, coming in at 14.5 percent octane, but it carries its alcohol very well and will have no difficulty aging beautifully. I can well imagine drinking this wine ten or fifteen years down the road and wonder why I even bothered to comment about the ripeness when it was young! 2028-2055+. 93.