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. Sierra Vista El Dorado Viognier (EB; 12.5%) 1995: Med.gold color; bit volatile/EA rather earthy slight herbal/celery/new mown grass slight tobaccoy/oxidized nose; tart bit earthy/lean/herbal some butterscotchy/caramel/tobaccoy slight oxidized flavor; long earthy/celery some caramel/ creme caramel/cheap Christmas candy slight oxidized finish; interesting wine w/ no Viognier character and showing its age; some like an old Calif Riesling.
2. Sierra Vista El Dorado Viognier (EB; 13.5%) 1996: Med.gold color; earthy/dusty/piney slight pear/ fragrant bit smokey/toasty/pungent/oak nose; tart earthy/piney some pungent/tobaccoy slight oxidized/old Calif R flavor; med.long piney/earthy slight oxidized/old Calif R finish; little gray around the edges; shows more oak & less oxidation; still interesting wine.
3. Stags' Leap Napa Valley Viognier (14.1%) 1999: Med.dark gold color; strong/intense toasty/charred/ pungent/Fr.oak very slight pear/Viognier nose; soft/lush very strong tobaccoy/charred/toasty/ Fr.oak flavor; med.long rich/lush charred/toasty/oak finish w/ slight bitterness; a wine totally bludgeoned by new Fr.oak and no varietal character whatsoever.
4. Domaine Clusel-Roche Condrieu (14.5%; MeBalP) Verenay, Ampuis 2001: Med.gold color; lovely/ elegant spicy/pear/Viognier some minerally/fragrant nose; soft rather lush/ripe elegant tropical fruit/pineapply/pear/Viognier slight minerally elegant/delicate flavor; somewhat short lush pineapply/pear/Viognier finish; a rather elegant/delicate likable Condrieu but not the intensity or minerality of a great Condrieu; not as good as expected.
5. Ridge Calif Lytton Estate Grenache (75% Grenache, 16% Zin, 9% PS; 14.8%; 41 brls) 2000: Med.dark color; strong Draper perfume/oaked slight earthy some strawberry/cherry/Grenache interesting/complex nose; tart very spicy light strawberry/cherry strong Draper perfume/oaked bit tannic/hard flavor; long rather hard/tannic oaked some earthy/cherry/cola finish; needs a few yrs of age; speaks more of Ridge red than Grenache.
6. Dehlinger Syrah Goldridge Vnyd Russian River Valley (EB; 14.7%) 2000: Very dark color; rather pencilly/ Fr.oak very spicy/fragrant/perfumed lovely blackberry/Syrah almost black cherry/Priorat slight gamey nose; tart rich blackberry/Syrah/black cherry cola very spicy some pencilly/toasty/Fr.oak flavor; very long pencilly/oak blackberry/black cherry finish w/ some tannins; beautiful classic Dehlinger wine.
7. Harlequin Syrah Sundance Vnyd Columbia Valley WA (15.2%) 2000: Med.dark color;  very perfumed/fragrant slight volatile lift pungent/smokey/toasty rather gamey/licorice rather boysenberry/black cherry/ Syrah complex nose; tart big/extracted pungent/licorice rather boysenberry/black cherry/cola some earthy/gamey flavor; very long/lingering tannic pungent/smokey bit herbal rather black cherry/ cola/blackberry finish; needs more age; loads of terroir; terrific classic WashState Syrah.
8. Chateau Russol Gardey Grande Reserve Minervois (MeBaC; 14%; Syrah) 1999: Black color; very intense walnutty/green walnuts very dusty/earthy/pungent bit sewer gas low fruit little Syrah nose; very intense/extracted/tannic very green walnutty pungent/dusty/earthy bit charred/oak little Syrah flavor; huge/extracted hard/tannic dusty/earthy/pungent very green walnutty finish; not much obvious fruit there but highly extracted. Worth taking a flyer at $15
9. Marietta Cellars Calif Syrah (14.3%; Sonoma&Mendocino; 20% PS) 2000: Very dark color; rathe Am.oaked some PS/peppery slight blackberry/Syrah bit buttery nose; tart rather licorice/peppery slight spicy some Am.oak/toasty flavor; med.long peppery/pungent/licorice slight blackberry/Syrah strong Am.oaked/buttery finish w/ some tannins; needs several yrs; more like their PS than a Syrah; speaks more of Marietta red than of Syrah; fairly priced at $17.00.
10. Canyon Road Calif Shiraz (13.5%) 2001: Dark color; some fecal/diaper-pail/reduced nose at first clears to herbal/dusty/mushroomy low fruit nose; soft earthy/herbal/mushroomy bit pungent/stinky flavor; med.short earthy/mushroomy finish w/ light tannins; speaks more of Lodi red than of Syrah; no bargin at $10.00.
11. Edmunds St.John Sonoma Carneros Durell Vnyd Syrah 1997: Black color; pungent earthy/dusty cracked black pepper bit roasted/toasty some blackberry/Syrah bit complex nose; very tart/acid rather peppery/ pungent slight roasted slight blackberry/Syrah some green olive flavor; med.long peppery/dusty some roasted/pungent slight blackberry finish w/ some tannins; a rather cranky Syrah not as good as I expected.
12. Edmunds St.John Sonoma Valley Syrah Durell Vnyd (13.9%) 1991: Black color; beautiful/complex smokey/ pungent/roasted/coffee/peppery/espresso some blackberry/Syrah rather Rhonish complex nose; tart pencilly/toasty roasted/espresso/pungent rather blackberry/Syrah complex flavor; very long pungent/peppery/espresso/roasted/smokey cracked pepper blackberry finish w/ some tannins; still going strong and probably at its peak but showing little signs of going over the hill.
13. Carlisle Sonoma Cnty Three Birds RW (15.7%; 70% Grenache/Unti Vnyd, 20% Mourvedre/John Continente 95 yr old ContraCosta vnyd, 10% Syrah/Ray Teldeschi DryCreekVlly vnyd) 2001: Med.color; lovely/fragrant very spicy strawberry/Grenache slight reduced some pencilly/toasty/oak very bright nose; strong black cherry/strawberry/candy very spicy/perfumed/fragrant flavor; very long very spicy strawberry/black cherry/soda bit toasty/oak finish w/ some tannins; lods of very spicy/vibrant Grenache fruit; lovely wine.
14. Carlisle Dry Creek Valley Petite Sirah (16.6%; Del Carlo Ranch & Unti vnyds) 2001: Very black color; very intense chocolaty/licorice/peppery/boysenberry loads of fruit some toasty/oak bit dusty nose; med.tart rich/lush licorice/blackberry/boysenberry/chocolaty pungent/toasty/charred/smokey/ oak concentrated flavor; very long loads of boysenberry/peppery/chocolaty some toasty/charred/oak finish w/ ample tannins; huge concentrated wine but the tannins seem in balance; doesn't seem alcoholic at all; incredible PS w/ loads of fruit.
15. Paul Coulon Boisrenard CdP (14%) 2000: Very dark color; earthy/dusty bit gamey rather strawberry/ bright fruit rather Calif-style nose; tart bit thin/light bright cherry/strawberry/Grenache slight earthy bit simple flavor; med. bright strawberry/Grenache finish w/ light tannins; more in a Calif style of Grenache and less CdP terroir.
16. Pierre Perrin Ch. de Beaucastel CdP (13.5%) 1990: Med.dark color; quite bretty some pencilly fairly complex bit Pinotish nose; soft/smooth elegant quite bretty/horsecollar bit gamey/earthy some dried-out flavor; med.long smooth complex bretty horsecollar finish w/ light tannins; maybe a bit beyond its peak; lots of horsecollar character but good complexity.

1. Dehlinger Syrah: This struck me as one of the better Dehlinger Syrahs I've had, more depth and extraction then some in the past. To me, the Dehlinger Syrah often tastes like a Syrah made by a Pinot producer. This tasted like a Syrah made by a Syrah producer. Beautiful wine.
2. Harlequin Syrah: www.harlequinwine.com : This is a tiny operation up in the Seattle that makes WashState wines and Oregon Pinots. Owned by Elizabeth Cook and Robert Goodfriend. Robert is one of my special long-time friends from the days he owned a restaurant in SantaFe; a very talented chef and obviously an equally talented winemaker. I had this Syrah over a yr ago and was pretty impressed by it. A years age has made me even more impressed. A very terroir-driven wine and one that I expect to age very well. His Cabernet is also most impressive. Elizabeth & Robert's son, Alexander, as cute a little bug as you'd ever see, is struggling for well over a year w/ aplastic anemia. Details are at www.geocities.com/alexandernevers.
3. Chateau Russol: Not a very well-liked wine at this tasting because of the paucity of fruit it showed. But I found it quite an interesting wine and very much terroir-driven. It's a good example of making a wine that's huge & extracted but still not obliterating the terroir. It'll be interesting to see if it ages into something interesting. When I was growing up (well... not yet there, but when I was much younger), we had about 10 old black walnut trees on our property in suburban KansasCity. It was my responsibility to pick up the walnuts as they fell to the ground. As I was more interested in shooting hoops down the street, I didn't always show much responsibility for this chore. So they would often lie on the ground into winter. My Mom would finally get fed up w/ my dwaddling and make me go out, clad only in my skivvies, get down on my hands & knees, with a foot of snow on the ground, and complete the harvest. I'd have these black stains on my knees and hands from the slimey walnut hulls for months, not to mention the frostbitten extremities. In the late summer, whilst the walnuts were still green, us neighborhood kids would get into these brutal walnut fights. More than once, I'd take a heavy hit to the head... which probably explains a lot of things. Used to be great fun to sit atop the outhouse, pick the walnuts off the tree, and heave them at the Utter's goats next door, and listen to them bray when they'd take a hit. The smell on our hands from those green walnut oils in the hulls is exactly what this wine smelled like. You had to have been there to relate.
4. Durell '97: This is a wine that has set in the distributor's warehouse for around 3 yrs, plus almost a yr on the shelf at WholeFoods. Though not a bad wine; it didn't deliver the level of excitement I expest from an older EdStJ Syrah. I think it probably suffered from its indifferent storage conditions,
5. Durell '91: This wine DID deliver the excitement I expect from an older EdStJ Syrah. I had dinner w/ Steve Edmunds, Stu Yaniger, and respect spouses at Baywolf last Friday. I thought I'd take Steve's '91 Durell to see how it was doing. Turns out, Steve brought exactly the same wine, en magnum (do great minds think alike or what?). So we used Steve's btl & I schlepped this btl back home & put it in this tasting. It delivered the goods. I don't think it showed the same level of fruit that the magnum did, but it was pretty impressive.
6. Three Birds: Named after the three graduates of Pomona College (Sage Hens), Mike, Kendall, and Jay. Knowing Mike Officer's winemaking style, I was expecting a wine slanted toward the big Alban style of Grenache. It is not. It is a very polished/well-made Grenache with loads of spicy fruit.
7. Carlisle Petite: This was the one that got a huge RP score and was very highly sought. It's a big blockbuster wine but much more fruit than most PSs. It even reminds me a bit of the Ridge YC PS '71 in its youth. It'll be fun to watch this evolve. Alas, only one more btl. But there's a fair amount of other btls here in LosAlamos, so I'll see it from time to time I'm sure.
8. Getting snookered: Howard knew I would feel the CdP embossing on the bottle under the sock, so he decanted it into a German Rhine btl. Highly unethical behavior I thought. No doubt, relying on a subtle visual clue, I identified it as young German spatburgunder or Alsatian Pinot. Once my mind settled on that, I was locked into that guess. All the brett should have been a tipoff on an older Beaucastel. Just goes to show... can't trust them chemists!!