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.

After the Grand Tasting at the Taos Winter Wine Festival, we adjourned to Larry & Laura Archibald's cabin there in the Valley for our own WineMaker dinner. In addition to Michael & Barbara Ogg, joining us was: John Olney/Ridge winemaker at the LyttonSprings facility, Stewart Goodfellow/Dir. of Sales Reps at Bacchus-WinePatrol distributors, Mike & Debbie Payne of my wine group, and Harry/the Ogg's big BlackLab. Laura primarily did the meal, which was stunning as usual, and Larry took care of the wines:

1. Zind-Humbrecht Pinot d'Alsace 1994: Very fragrant/perfumed/flowery almost R-like nose; soft/rich very floral/R-like flavor w/ an underlying steeliness; very unlike most Alsatian PB and more like R; no signs of an emminent demise.
2. Ridge Geyserville (85% TrentadueRanch/15% AngeliRanch; 14.4%) 1981: Med.light color; rather strong bretty/horsecollar/barnyardy some alcoholic no fruit some complex nose; tart earthy some sharp/metallic rather bretty/horsecollar some cedary/pencilly/oak flavor; too much brett and on its last legs.
3. Pfeffingen Ungsteiner Herrenberg Scheurebe Spatlese 2001: Lovely fragrant/perfumed floral slight metallic/steely/Mosel valve oil nose; off dry very minerally/steely yet lush floral R-like flavor; lovely Scheurebe that should age for many yrs.
4. Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon (100% CS; 12.7%) 1976: Med.color; strong cedary/smokey/ complex/cigar box fragrant nose; tart bit lean/dried out complex/cedary/cigar box/pencilly rather spicy/earthy slight funky flavor; drying out a bit and lost most of its fruit but a classic/lovely oldBordeaux-like Cab.
5. Landmark Grand Detour Sonoma Mtn Van der Kamp Vineyard Pinot Noir 2000: Attractive smokey/pungent/ toasty some black cherry/Pinot Noir bit Burgundian nose; soft/round some earthy/Burgundian rather pungent/toasty/oak flavor; pleasant Burgundian Pinot, but just that.
6. Ridge Monte Bello (12.5%) 1995: Very dark color; beautiful complex/smokey/earthy/pungent some blackcurranty/chocolaty/Cab nose; big/rich bit menthol rather smokey/pungent/toasty earthy/blackcurranty Cab flavor w/ fair tannins; showing some complexity but still needs  more age.
7. Chateau Pichon-Lalande 1995: Dark color; big/ripe chocolaty/blackcurranty some cedary/toasty some earthy/herbal/Bdx nose; rich/hard blackcurranty/chocolaty toasty/charred herbal/earthy flavor w/ fair tannins; rather ripe Bdx that needs more age; terrific Bdx.
8. Ridge Calif Late Harvest Zin Lytton Springs Vineyard (16.0%; SaH: 36.0%; RS: 8.0%) 1992: Med.dark color; rather ripe/blackberry/Zin jammy/late harvesty some earthy nose; very sweet very ripe/ jammy/blackberry slightly hot slight Kansas feed store flavor; very ripe & jammy but still plenty of blackberry fruit.
9. Ridge Calif Zin Essence Dusi Ranch (13.9%; SaH: 39%; RS: 9.2%) 1991: Med.dark color; very jammy/blackberry/raisened/pruney/boysenberry bit volatile nose; very sweet very overripe/ blackberry/jammy/pruney bit hot/volatile flavor; much more overripe/pruney character that is starting to show thru.

1. Ridge Geyserville '81: This was when the Ridge wines were at their nadir. The had developed  a bad brett infection in the (MonteBello) wnry that was raging throughout their wines from about 1979 up until 1983. Paul then figured out the problem, made a wholesale replacement of their oak cooperage, got the brett under control, and with the 1984 vintage, the problem was behind them. But in that era, I was so dissatisfied w/ the brett/funky character of their wines that I quit buying them. This '81 was a cellar remnant from that era and has clearly not stood the test of time.
2. John Olney: John is the Ridge winemaker at the Lytton Springs facility. I've never had much opportunity to visit w/ John, so it was indeed a treat for him to join us. His wife, English, was along w/ John to pour at the Grand tasting. When I first saw her, I knew she looked  awfully familar. Turn out she used to wait on me at Kermit Lynch's shop in Berkeley back when she worked there a number of yrs and recalled me from that context. 

TomHill