by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

Tasted last night a range of Portugese red wines. Two killer Grenaches stood out:

1. Clos Manyetes Priorat (14.5%); Propietari: Luc Van Iseghem; 1999: Black color; very intense blackberry/strawberry/Grenache rather toasty/oaked nose; big/rich/ loads of intense strawberry/blackberry/Grenache fruit bit earthy/dusty old vines rather toasty/Fr(?) oaked fairly hard/tannic flavor; very long intense blackberry/ strawberry/Grenache rather toasty/oaked tannic finish; needs 3-6 yrs age; lots of  oak but plenty of intense Grenache fruit; killer stuff, as good a Priorat as they  have and a fair price. $47.25
2. Jerome Bressy Domaine Gourt de Mautens Rasteau (14%) 1999: Black color; beautiful very intense/huge blackberry/boysenberry/Grenache spicy/peppery dusty/old vines some complex toasty/pungent/oak nose; big/huge/mouthfilling blackberry/boysenberry/Grenache some toasty/charred/oak peppery/spicy rather hard/tannic flavor; very long/lingering hard/tannic very intense/loads of Grenache/boysenberry/blackberry fruit light toasty finish; killer intense Grenache w/ structure to age. Good price. $36.00

1. I had been noting a proliferation (well... a gentle groundswell is more apt) of  Portugese wines since a new distributor opened here in NM who specializes in Spanish & Portugese wines. Curious, I thought they would be interesting to try with the SantaFe  group. Since the prices ranged from $6 only up to $16/btl; my expectations were pretty low. This is exactly the kind of "intellectual experience" tasting for which I am wont to receive an unending stream of ridicule and abuse from the group, so I was wearing my thickest armor.  Surprise, surprise... the wines were remarkably good. Nothing really outstanding, only one unlovable wine (Quinta de Pancas Vinho Regional Estremadura Cabernet Sauvignon;  Producao de Vinhos de Quinte; 1998- $11.99.... quite herbal/near vegetal), one textbook corked, and some rather attractive. The group (we tasted blind) hadn't a clue as to the wines we were tasting, despite a plethora of hints and clues I parsed out. I particularly liked some of the varietals from the Douro. Those varieties they grow there really ought to be drawing more interest in Calif, and not just for Port wines. Besides, the vision of buxom babes in hot pants treading grapes in stone lagares by foot has a certain  attraction to me and would, no doubt, elicit more interest in the thankless task of making wine at wineries in Calif!!! Dennis Horton has been doing a lot of work w/ Touriga Nacional & I've quite liked his examples I've tasted. Anyway, the two Grenache ringers were designed to salvage the tasting. Though they were easily the high points, the Portugese wines did very well on their own, thank you.
2. I've followed The Gourt from the very start ('97?). Easily the most expensive and atypical Rasteau made. I liked the '97 Gourt ($34) quite a lot and knew when I tasted it that this was something unique. The '98 ($24) I found a bit underwhelming and not nearly  up to the '97 in character. But.... this '99 is the best one yet. Huge huge Grenache.  It had a very strong peppery/spicy/pungent/charred character to it which I thought made it a dead-ringer for an Alban Grenache.... high praise for The Gourt, indeed!!! It would be great to taste them side-by-side. Anyway, it's killer juice, the '99.

TomHill