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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.

Ojai Vnyds Syrah - June, 2002
     
  1. Ojai Calif Syrah (Bien Nacido/ZacaMesa/Thompson/Estate vnyds) 1994: Dark color; lovely/complex perfumed smokey/spicy blackberry nose that becomes very pungent/toasty/smokey; tart/juicy blackberry/Syrah complex some toasty/pungent flavor; developing some bottle complexity but still in terrific shape and still some yrs ahead of it.
  2. Ojai Calif Syrah (RollRanch/Bien Nacido/ZacaMesa/Estate) 1995: Dark color; very strong blackberry/ boysenberry licorice/pungent/smokey intense Syrah nose; soft/big/lush juicy/boysenberry/framboise slight pungent/smokey flavor w/ light tannin; loaded w/ Syrah fruit & still young.
  3. Ojai Calif Syrah (RollRanch/Bien Nacido/Stolpman vnyds) 1996: Very dark color; big green olive/blackberry some toasty/oak/pungent complex nose; rich blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah slight green olive light toasty flavor; a very interesting and still young Syrah.
  4. Ojai Calif Syrah 1997: Very dark colr; more blackberry/boysenberry/juicy/Syrah light toasty/oak nose; soft/round/lush very ripe loads of boysenberry/blackberry/Syrah light toasty flavor; not quite the tannins/structure of the others, probably acause the large '97 crop loads.
  5. Ojai Calif Syrah 1998: More toasty/pungent/oaked very peppery/black pepper/blackberry/Syrah/black cherry nose; big/rich lush blackberry/Syrah/black cherry light toasty flavor w/ good tannins; still needs more age; terrific Syrah.
  6. Ojai Calif Syrah 1999: Arghhhhh....badly corked. The producer would have replaced it...if he had any there at the winery.
  7. Ojai Santa Barbara County Syrah 2000: Very dark color; fairly strong blackberry/Syrah/black cherry/cola bit dusty/earthy rather closed nose; tart/closed/tannic/hard some blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah light toasty flavor; seems really tight & closed right now but very structured for long aging; I expect this  to be a killer Syrah in a yr or two, and hold much longer than that.

TomHill

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