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. Andrew Murray Wines: Just can't figure out what's going on w/ Andrew. Many of his recent wines have been on the volatile/EA side, to outrageously volatile. And then ever so often he'll slam one out of the park. These two wines from Andrew were rather disappointing. Not because of being volatile (they weren't); they were just unusually boring wines; simple/ pleasant, but just that. I was expecting more.
2. Ridge '02 Fall Release: By and large, the Ridge '02 seem probably the best tableau since their '99's. That being said, this Gysrvlle'02 is pretty underwhelming right now; lots of simple raspberry/Zin fruit with impeccable balance. THAT being said, you have to go w/ Draper's prediction of it having a long lifetime ahead of it. The LS and the Gsrvls often seem on the simple side upon release, but have a way of putting on weight and intensity over the first yr after release. I think this '02 Geyserville will do just that. The Pagani LP'02 is a stunning wine, more like the Ridges of old if any are. Hard to believe Draper's reccomendation that the Gysrvlle'02 will outlive that wine. You have to give Ridge credit here...they haven't raised their prices in ?? yrs. Don't know of any other wnry who can claim that.

   TomHill