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.

We tasted last night (6/1/05) some NewPinotNoirs:

1. Jezebel PinotNoir WillametteVlly (13.4%) AronHess&PeterRosbach/Sineann/Newberg/OR 2000:
Med.dark color; rather dusty/walnutty light cherry/PN nose; tart light dusty/walnutty light/bright/ attractive cherry/PN no oak flavor; med.short dusty/earthy light cherry/PN finish w/ light tannins; a bit simple and short on fruit but a pretty/drinkable Pinot. $23.00
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2. Francis Tannahill TheHermit PinotNoir WillametteVlly (13.8%; www.FrancisTannahill.com;
398 cs; Shes&Momtazi vnyds) 2003: Dark color; ripe/lush black cherry/blackberry/PN lighttoasty/ Fr.oak nose; tart quite hard/tannic black cherry/black berry/PN almost Syrah-like rather edgy/ overextracted light toasty flavor; long strong black cherry/blackberry pretty hard/tannic finish; needs much age; pretty hard and seem overextracted for the fruit that's there; expensive for a doubtful potential. $35.00
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3. AnticaTerra PinotNoir WillametteVlly (14.0%) 2002: Dark color; rather funky/earthy/meaty
slight black cherry/PN light toasty/oak nose; bit tannic some funky/earthy slight unclean light black cherry/PN somewhat hard flavor; med.long hard/tannic light black cherry some earthy finish; seems a bit closed and lacking in fruit; needs some age. Pricey at $39.00
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4. J.Wilkes SantaBarbaraCnty PinotNoir (125 cs; SolomonHillsVnyd/Block 3; 14.5%) 2003:Terribly corked nose; slight earthy/black cherry flavor but too musty/corked to tell much. Back to LazyAcres it goes. $40.00
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5. Radio-Coteau Savoy AndersonVlly PinotNoir (14.4%; u&u; 440 cs) 2003: Med.color; lovely/
fragrant pencilly/oak bright/perfumed/cherry/PN floral very aromatic nose; tart very bright/cherry/ PN/vibrant light pencilly/Fr.oak very spicy/floral classic AndrsnVlly flavor; long bright/vibrant floral/cherry/spicy light pencilly/oak finish; terrific elegant bright/vibrant kind of Pinot. $45.00
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6. Radio-Coteau "LaNeblina" SonomaCoast PinotNoir (14.4%; u&u; 220 cs) 2003: Med.dark color;
bigger/richer black cherry/cherry/PN lush/spicy slight toasty/pencilly/oak nose; tart
balanced richer/lush black cherry/cherry/violets/spicy/PN some pencilly/toasty/oak flavor;
very long rich/lush very spicy/black cherry/PN light toasty finish w/ fine tannins; rich/
lush but elegant & balanced; terrific spicy Pinot. $36.00
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7. Lucia PinotNoir SantaLuciaHighlands Garys'Vnyd (14.6%; www.LuciaVineyards.com) 2003: Dark
color; strong black cherry/herbal/PN spicy/cinammon some toasty/oak classic SLH nose; soft
rather herbal strong black cherry/PN slight earthy/dusty rather toasty/Fr.oak flavor; med.long herbal/black cherry light toasty/oak finish w/ light tannins; has that classic SLH herbal character but loads of fruit; very much in the Siduri style. $36.00
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8. hope&grace St.LuciaHighlands SleepHollowVnyd PinotNoir (302 cs; 13.5%) Charles Hendricks/
WineMaker/Napa 2002: Very dark color; very strong pickle juice/volatile/acetic little PN nose; dreadful hot/volatile pickle juice/acetic no fruit flavor; way to voatile and acetic; a joke at this price. $39.00
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9. Hartley Ostini HitchingPost St.Rita'sEarth PinotNoir SantaRitaHills (14.5%; Sanford&
Benedict/Cargasacchi/RioVista/ArritaHills vnyds; Clones: 667/777/115/2A) 2003: Highly/totally musty/corked nose; musty/cardboardy/TCA flavor. Another back to LazyAcres. $31.00
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10. Hartley Ostini HitchingPost Highliner PinotNoir SantaBarbaraCnty (14.5%;
Fiddlestix/Cargasacchi/Sanford&Benedict/RioVista/BienNacido vnyds; Clones: 2A/4/115/667/777; www.HPWines.com) 2003: Med.light color; pretty cherry/black cherry/PN very pencilly/toasty/oak some Burgundian/earthy nose; strong toasty/Fr.oak attractive cherry/black cherry fairly smoky/Burgundian flavor; med.long toasty/Fr.oak spicy/cherry finish w/ light tannins; attractive Burgundian-like straightforward Pinot.$41.00
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11. Drew PinotNoir Gatekeeper SantaRitaHills (40% RioVistaVnyd, 60% Ashley'sVnyd; 425 cs;
13.9%) 2003: Dark color; very strong black cherry/blackberry/PN quite spicy/cloves rathertoasty/ oak/charred/pungent some Burgundian nose; tart bright cherry/black cherry rather pungent/ charred/taosty/Fr.oak some peppery/complex flavor; long cherry/black cherry/PN very spicy bit peppery somewhat toasty/charred/oak finish; fair amount of charred oak but has the fruit to support it; my favorite of these Drews. Great price at $28.00
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12. Drew PinotNoir Julia'sVnyd SantaMariaHills (125 cs; 14.2%) 2003: Med.dark color; slight vegetal/ earthy/funky some light/cherry/PN light toasty/oak nose; softer bright/cherry/PN slight plummy some toasty/oak flavor; med.long cherry/PN/plummy slight earthy finish w/light tannins; bit funky on nose but attractive/cherry character; bit simpler than the other one. Less attractive price at $36.00.
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13. Failla PinotNoir KeeferRanch RussianRiverVlly (14.3%; www.FaillaWines.com) 2003: Med.color;
slightly corked/musty some black cherry/PN earthy light toasty oak nose; subdued black cherry/
earthy slight musty flavor; some good things there but the TCA robbed this wine I suspect. $46.00
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14. Failla PinotNoir SonomaCoast (14.9%; YoungVines/Keefer&Hirsch Ranchs) 2003: Med.dark bit
murky color; very strong black cherry/PN dusty quite rich/lush/spicy strong toasty/charred/
Fr.oak nose; tart bright/cherry/black cherry/PN dusty somewhat toasty/charred/smoky/oak
flavor; long rich/tart/lush black cherry/cherry/spicy/PN rather toasty/charred/oak finish w/
some tannins; needs several yrs; lots of richness & lushness but a bright/zippy acidity;fairly priced at $36.00
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15. SantaCruzMtnVnyds SCM PinotNoir (EB; JarvisVnyd; 15.6%; SaH: 28Brix, TA: 1.1) 1980:
Black color w/ very slight browning; very charred/burnt/oak some musty (non-TCA)/wet wood/
wet dog fur earthy some cedary/fragrant nose w/ little fruit; tart very earthy/damp cellar very charred/toasty/burnt/oak bit astringent/dried out flavor; long very burnt/charred/oak rather earthy/dusty slight cedary/complex somewhat dried out/astringent finish; some interesting cedary character but dominated by burnt oak. Pretty nearly gone. $12.29
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16. Dehlinger PinotNoir RussianRiverVlly Estate (14.7%) 2002: Med.light color; slight volatile/
cardboard very pencilly/cedary/oak fragrant cherry/PN slight earthy nose; slight cardboardy/
musty (non-TCA) strong/bright/cherry/PN rather pencilly/oak flavor; long slight musty/cardboardy bright cherry/PN rather pencilly/oak finish w/ light tannins; the cardboardy character is a bit distracting but attractive classic Dehlinger PN. $38.70

1. Two incredibly corked and one slightly corked wines in one tasting; a record. Friggin'
corks.
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2. Radio-Coteaus: I've followed R-C from the very start. I think Eric Sussman is making some
terrific wines under this label; Pinot/Syrah/Zin. They are very much along the more
elegant line than bigness line. Of these two Pinots, I slightly preferred the Neblina as
being a bit more interesting. Both had, I thought, an incredibly spicy aromatic interesting
noses. However, I somewhat prefer the Syrahs and Zin, probably because they are stylistic
different from many others from those two varieties. Terrific wines all about elegance and
balance.
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3. DrewPinots: These are the first Pinots of Jason Drew's I've had. They're not as big and
flamboyant as his Syrahs, but well-made/solid Pinots at a more than fair price.
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4. SantaCruzMtn Pinot: This was the 3'rd (and last) btl I've had of this wine in the last two
months. In its youth, this was a huge extracted Pinot that was gonna live forever. It did
not. It had the classic "Burnap stench", that slightly fecal/burnt rubber smell his rather
reduced wines then typically showed. It was probably the first Calif Pinot made like a Syrah,
afore there were any Calif Syrahs that would have that character.
The first btl was very dried out/astringent/tired/DOA. The 2'nd btl was amazingly good,
with lots of cedary aromatics and balanced/spicy flavors. This btl was somewhere inbetween;
some good things therein, but sliding down the slippery slope. The color was initially very
dark w/ little browning. But within an hour, sitting there in the decanter, it had turned
to a very murky brown; apt testimony to the effects of oxygen on wines w/ a very high
redox potential.
TomHill