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.

Had dinner with Bernie & Sam last night last night in SantaFe. Also in attendance were Howard&Rhoda Sherry (real troopers... just back from the Parker Off0Line) and Jeff Pfohl. The company was lively & spirited. The repartee w/ Bernie was fun, as usual. The wines:

1. Origin-Napa Gamble Vineyard (14.1%; 725 cs) Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2001: Light yellow color; very attractive/figgy/perfumed/perfumed talc atypical/little herbal almost GruVe-like floral/fragrant light oak nose; soft/juicy figgy/melony rather flowery/GruVee or R-like light oak flavor; long/soft figgy/melony light pencilly/oak floral/juicy finish; little SB character but a lovely/juicy white wine. H&R's wine.
2. Pichler Wachau Loibner Berg Riesling Smaragd 1999: Pale yellow color; very fragrant/floral/ R bit spicy/valve oil beautiful aromatic nose; soft/lush very floral/fragrant/R/perfumed slight earthy very Alsatian-like nose; off-dry rich/lush/powerful mouthfilling floral/R/ aromatic very spicy flavor; very long/lingering very lush tart very spicy/floral finish; much of the same character of a Z-H GrandCry Riesling but a bright/zippy acidity underneath all the fruit; will be a killer wine in 10-20 yrs. H&R's hand-carried wine brought back  from Austria.
3. Michel Ogier Cote-Rotie 1989: Med.dark color; some valve-oil/meaty/gamey very espresso/ coffee/smokey/truffly/mushroomy very complex nose; rather tart slight metallic complex some coffee/espresso very smooth/round rather gamey/meaty/truffly/roasted flavor; very long smooth/round/velvety some meaty/gamey slight metallic/dried-out/astringent truffly/perfumed finish; terrific example of mature C-R. Tom's wine. Alas my last one... I usually save my last btls of a wine until they're further out onto the senility curve.
4. Jaboulet La Chappelle Hermitage 1983: Dark color; slight volatile slight smokey/earthy/ mushroomy/damp Kansas root cellar walnutty/dusty slight roasted/pungent complex nose; tart/lean/astringent/gritty rather earthy/dusty/walnutty slight pungent/smokey bit dried- out flavor; med.long gritty/astringent walnutty/dusty/earthy finish. Interesting nose but doesn't have the smokey/roasted character I was expecting. Faded a bit.
5. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillon 1990: Very dark color; deep smokey/pungent/toasty slight roasted/espresso some blackberry/Syrah bit closed/tight nose; tart very spicy/cloves some espresso/coffee/roasted slight blackberry/Syrah rich/mouthfilling flavor; very long/tart hard/tannic slight roasted/espresso some blackberry finish w/ ample tannins; seems rather primary in character & not showing much complexity yet; quite a young wine yet. H&R's wine.
6. Wild Duck Creek Heathcote Springflat Shiraz (14.6%) Central Victoria 1997: Very dark/black color; intense/powerful blackberry/boysenberry/Shiraz rather vanilla/oaked/vanilla extract some smokey/complex/pungent nose; tart very rich/powerful Am.oaked/vanilla extract some menthol/minty very intense/extracted blackberry/boysenberry/framboise/Syrah huge flavor; very long/lingering extracted/boysenberry/framboise finish w/ ample tannins; still young and primary; very rich/lush but a great underlying acidity.
7. Weingut Lehnert-Veit Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling TBA 1994: Med.dark gold color;  beautiful/fragrant/perfumed bright floral/R/spicy some peachy/pear/botrytis bit complex amazing nose; tart very perfumed/fragrant very bright/zippy/floral/flowery/R light botrytis/ peachy/pear very sweet flavor; incredible long/lingering bright R/floral finish; still a young TBA with a long life ahead. Howard&Rhoda's wine hand-carried back from Germany.

1. The Origin SB was apparently labeled by RP as the best SB he's ever had, which created an immediate run on the wine. I'm not sure I good that far in that I found virtually none of the usual SB character at all. Further, it displayed none of the typical terroir from the GambleRanch. But it was a very attractive very likable white wine in its own right. Its strong floral character kept reminding me of good GruVee more than anything, maybe a bit of Alsace as well.
2. Ogier C-R: The slight screechy/metallic/valve oil character this wine showed on pouring eventually faded, leaving one of the finest examples of a fully-mature C-R I can recall.  The typical pungent/espresso/roasted character of C-R was pretty low-key and the gamey/ truffly character was very pronounced. I kept feeling what I thought were pigs rooting around at my feet for the truffles, then looked down under the table and realized it was  merely Bernie down there groveling for another pour!!! :-)
3. LaChappelle: I found a lot of things to like in this wine, but it struck me as a bit funky and faded in the nose. The wine was loaded w/ sediment and pretty murkey and probably would have fared better on the palate if it'd been decanted.
4. WildDuckCreek Shiraz: Terrific Oz Shiraz. Every time I have a Victoria Shiraz, I'm more and more impressed with this area.
5. Lehnert-Veit: Not familar with this producer (http://www.weingut-lehnert-veit.de/) but I was blown away by this TBA. One of the best young German TBAs I've tried. Loads & loads of bright R fruit and not that heavy-handed botrytis/peachy character that some can show. Amazing wein. Would like to try his other ones. Gather they're not imported to USofA.
6. A stunning meal at SantaCafe.... they never disappoint. David Sellars was in the kitchen and it showed, everything came out perfect. The wait-staff were impeccable in their service, right on top of everything. Jan Brennan kept us all under control and prevented Bernie from doing his usual table-top dance & embarrasing us all!!