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.

 
1. Siduri Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir 1999: Dark color; fragrant black cherry/Pinot some cedary/ pencilly/Fr.oak lovely/aromatic nose; rather rich strong black cherry/Pinot some toasty/pencilly/Fr.oak bit tannic flavor; very long rather tannic very strong perfumed/ black cherry/Pinot finish; needs several yrs; lovely oaked loads of black cherry very well made Pinot.
2. Georges Romier Chambolle-Musigny 1991: Med.dark color; somewhat funky/earthy/Burgundy/ fecal/poopy slight cherry light toasty/oak nose; tart/lean rather bretty/horsey/poopy earthy low fruit flavor; tart/lean/hard some tannic weak cherry/Pinot rather unclean/ bretty finish; not much fruit & rather hard/lean & rather unclean.
3. Ojai Santa Lucia Highlands Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir 1997: Very dark color; very lush black  cherry loads of spicy Pinot fruit rather toasty/smokey/Burgundian/Fr.oak nose; tart rich ripe black cherry/Pinot/very spicy rather toasty/smokey/Burgundian/Fr.oak flavor; very long some tannic bit weak strong toasty/pungent/smokey/Fr.oak black cherry/ Pinot finish; lots of spicy fruit; can still use a yr or two; big Pinot.
4. Foxen Julia's Vineyard Santa Barbara Pinot Noir 1998: Med.dark color; lovely floral/violets complex/perfumed pencilly/toasty/Fr.oak slight minerally/metallic nose; tart bit green/ hard/metallic lean rather pencilly/Burgundian/oaked light cherry/Pinot flavor; med.long lean/metallic rather Fr.oaked/pencilly/toasty some tannic finish; lots of oak and a bit short on fruit, doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
5. Kistler Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 1998: Very dark color; very strong black cherry/Pinot/ spicy lush/loads of fruit/intense some toasty/smokey/Fr.oaked nose; big/huge intense black cherry/blackberry/Pinot/very spicy almost Zin-like tart flavor; very long lush/ tannic loads of black cherry/Pinot/spicy finish w/ ample tannins; a big/huge extracted lush mouthfilling Pinot; should be a great one.
6. Bonny Doon Sonoma Pinot Noir 1995: Med.color; bit earthy/smokey/toasty some perfumed talc little fruit strange nose; tart/lean little fruit earthy/dusty hard/tannic flavor; med. short hard/earthy rather tannic finish; a hard/mean little wine w/ little fruit.
7. Alban Estate Reva Syrah 1995: Very dark color; very strong herbal/peppery/gamey very smokey/pungent/toasty/Fr.oak nose; intense herbal/peppery/gamey/blackberry/spicy very toasty/pungent/Fr.oak/smokey lush/hard/tart flavor; very long herbal/peppery/spicy/ blackberry toasty/Fr.oak/pungent/charred finish w/ ample tannins; needs more age.
8. Brick House Wilamette Valley Pinot Noir 1995: Med.dark color; very strong perfumed talc/ floral/aromatic/cheap perfume light/pencilly/oak nose; tart/lean very strong perfumed talc/perfumey/floral/fragrant bit thin light toasty/pencilly/oak flavor; med.long lean/tart/hard bit thin very aromatic/perfumey/perfumed talc/violets finish; a bit drying out on the palate but effusively perfumey.
9. Flowers Carneros Pinot Noir 1997: Very dark color; beautiful toasty/Fr.oaked/smokey/ complex black cherry/black berry slight earthy/dusty complex nose; very rich intense black cherry/blackberry lush tart toasty/smokey/Fr.oaked flavor; very long complex/ toasty/smokey/Fr.oak intense black cherry/blackberry light earthy finish w/ fair tannins; big huge extracted Pinot.
10. Flowers Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 1998: Med.color; rather strong toasty/Fr.oaked/smokey complex some bright cherry/spicy almost Oregon-like fragrant nose; tart/hard bright cherry/Pinot rather toasty/Fr.oak quite spicy bit lean flavor; very long very spicy/ cherry/bright some tannic rather toasty/Fr.oak finish; needs several yrs; rather more like Oregon Pinot.

And the usual ramblings from the bloody pulpit:

1. As most of the SantaFe groups tastings are, this was done as a blind tasting; always a humbling experience. We picked up on the first two wines that it was probably Pinots, and probably a pairing of Calif vs. French Pinots. The first wine of each pair (save the last pair) seemed very rich & lush & Calif in style and the second wine seemed tart & lean and more Burgundian in character. Jeff swears the pairings were random and this was just an accident. Whatever. It was one of the best Pinot tastings the group has ever had. Terrific wines.
2. The Alban Reva Syrah was the ringer in the bunch. It had a very strong cold climate/ herbal character to it that made me think it was Monterey Pinot, probably a PisoniVineyard Pinot. The wine was round vilified for it's strong herbal character, which most tasters labelled as "vegetal". If my vegetables would of tasted like that, I would have listened to my Mom "....eat your vegetables" when I was young and been a much better person for it. Larry Archibald suggested we taste the wine and think Syrah, which seemed to make it more acceptable to people. Nonetheless, it had a very strong herbal/green olive character that most disliked and I was about the only defender of the wine. I took the bottle home and the blackberry/gamey/Syrah character was much more on the forefront, but the herbal component was still there. This was John Alban's first great Syrah, the first wine that moved him to the forefront of Syrah winemakers in Calif. I am still impressed by the wine. But it needs some time in the glass to really open up.

1. TomHill