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 this week (2/1/06) some New Calif Pinots:

1. Dutton-Goldfield PinotNoir DuttonRanch/RussianRvrVlly (13.5%; www.DuttonGoldfield.com)
2003: Med.color; lovely/fragrant cherry/PN bit candied light peppery/pencilly/oak rather
Burgundian lovely nose; elegant bright cherry/candied light pencilly/oak flavor; long very lingering bright cherry/Nehi soda pop finish w/ light tannins; a very pretty/elegant/balanced Pinot. $35.00
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2. Dutton-Goldfield PinotNoir Devil'sGulchVnyd/MarinCnty (13.4%; 16 brls) 2003: Med.dark
color; strong toasty/oak strong black cherry/bing cherry quite peppery/spicy complex nose; strong bright black cherry/spicy/Pinot slight peppery some toasty/oak flavor; very long bit tannic peppery/very spicy blacl-binf cherry/PN light toasty finish; needs 1-4 yrs; beautiful/spicy interesting Pinot. $48.00
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3. KostaBrown PinotNoir KanzlerVnyd/SonomaCoast (14.7%; www.KostaBrown.com) 2003: Dark color; strong dusty/earthy black cherry/PN some taosty/smokey/oak very attractive nose; tart big/ripe/extracted somewhat black cherry/PN/candied rather toasty/oak bit alcoholic flavor; med.long bit hot strong black cherry/PN some toasty/charred/oak finish; needs several yrs; big clunky/bit oafish Pinot; pretty pricey at $52.00.
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4. KostaBrown PinotNoir CohnVnyd/RussianRiverVlly (15.5%) 2003: Dark color; deep/ripe/fruity/
black cherry/PN some toasty/oak bit alcoholic nose; light black cherry/PN very ripe bit
alcoholic some toasty/pungent/oak extracted flavor; med.long alcoholic big/ripe/grapey/black cherry bit earthy rather toasty/charred/oak finish w/ fair tannins; needs several yrs of age; big/clunky overripe Pinot. Overpriced at $52.00
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5. HugCllrs RanchoOntiveros/SantaMariaVlly PinotNoir (14.9%) 2004: Med.color; some toasty/
Burgundian/oak some earthy/dusty/walnutty light black cherry/PN candied pretty nose; soft
attractive juicy/cherry/black cherry/PN light toasty/oak flavor; med.long juicy/cherrylight toasty /oak finish w/ light tannins; an attractive straightforward SB Pinot. $43.00
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6. HugCllrs OrchidHillVnyd/PasoRobles PinotNoir (14.9%; www.HugCellars.com) 2004: Med.dark
color; very ripe/jammy/blackberry/PN/almost Zin-like very peppery nose; soft ripe/jammy/ fruity/blackberry/black cherry/CherryMash pleasant flavor; med. ripe/jammy/blackberry lush slight spicy/peppery finish w/ light tannins; speaks more of Paso jammy and less of PN varietal; pleasant Pinot for current drinking. $27.00
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7. DrewFamily PinotNoir AritaHills/SantaRitaHills (14.5%; 70 cs) 2004: Dark color; attractive
black cherry/black pepper/PN very slight funky/medicinal bit candied nose; tart dusty/peppery cherry/black cherry light toasty/Burgundian/oak flavor; med.long dusty/black cherry/PN light toasty/oak finish w/ some tannins; needs a yr or two; an attractive/pleasant PN. $37.00
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8. DrewFamily PinotNoir Threesome/SantaRitaHills (14.4%; 322 cs; ClosPepe/Fiddlestix/
AritaHills vnyds) 2004: Med.color; dusty/spicy cherry/black cherry/PN light toasty/smokey/
oak nose; tart spicy/dusty bit peppery/earthy/dusty cherry/black cherry/PN light toasty/oak
flavor; med.long dusty cherry/black cherry/PN light toasty/oak finish w/ light tannins;
attractive good-drinking Pinot. $40.00
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9. DrewFamily PinotNoir Gatekeepers/SantaRitaHills (14.8%; 370 cs) 2004: Med.dark color;
attractive very spicy/black cherry/PN light pencilly/toasty/oak nose; tart rather spicy/cherry/ black cherry/PN some toasty/Burgundian/oak peppery flavor; long peppery/black cherry/PN some toasty/smokey/oak finish w/ light tannins; not much different from the other two;very attractive/ spicy Pinot. $37.00
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10. Babcock PinotNoir Granite'sGhost Riverview&Viento vnyd/MontereyCnty (14.3%) 2004: Med.
light color; strong Monterey/herbal/very ripe light cherry/PN some toasty/oak nose; light rather herbal/Monterey/PN/black cherry/ripe bit earthy some toasty/charred/oak flavor; med. long herbal/dusty/Monterey toasty/oak finish w/ light tannins; rather strong herbal/ Monterey character and lacks the lush/bright/black cherry character of SantaLuciaHighlands Pinots. $30.00
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11. KenBrown ClosPepeVnyd/SantaRitaHills PinotNoir (14.7%) 2003: Very dark color; intense
blackberry/PN/very ripe/black cherry light toasty/oak very intense nose; intense black cherry/
blackberry/Pinot light toasty/Burgunbdian/oak light dusty flavor; med.long intense black cherry/
ripe/PN finish w/ some tannins; needs several yrs; a very intense yet distinctly Pinot; best
KenBrown red I've ever had. $42.00
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12. OjaiVnyd BienNacidoVnyd/SBCnty PinotNoir (14.0%; 1 ton/acre) 2002: Near black color; very
intense black cherry/blackberry/boysenberry/PN/DrPepper/RoyalCrown slight medicinal/reduced/
milk-of-magnesia very toasty/smoky/pungent/oak complex/intense nose; big/hard/tannic very
intense blackberry/black cherry/PN/boysenberry rather toasty/pungent/smokey slight dusty flavor; very long very intense black cherry/blackberry/PN rather smokey/toasty/oak rather hard/tannic finish; huge hard tannic Pinot that needs much age; probably will be a killer Pinot down the road w/ age. $39.00
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13. Failla PinotNoir HirschVnyd/SonomaCoast (14.1%; www.FaillaWines.com; 425 cs) 2003: Med.color; lovely cranberry/black cherry/PN light toasty/oak very floral/aromatic/violets/rose cherry soda poop complex/spicy nose; tart bright cherry/bing cherry/Pinot bit dusty/earthy light toasty/Burgundian/oak/pungent quite spicy/complex flavor; very long very spicy/bright/ cherry/bing cherry/Pinot finish w/ some tannins; needs 2-5 yrs; big/deep/rich Pinot w/ lots of spicy/brightness to it; terrific Pinot; this is what the KostaBrown should taste like. $52.00
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14. Ojai BienNacido PinotNoir (14.5%) 1999: Very dark color; very floral/black cherry/PN rather
toasty/pencilly/FrOak/smokey some dusty/walnutty/stewed tomatoes quite aromatic/complex nose;tart bright cherry/black cherry/PN light toasty/oak/pencilly very spicy/complex flavor; very
long/smooth/velvety bright/cherry/black cherry/PN some toasty/pencilly/oak very spicy finish
w/ light tannins; probably ready to drink now; lots of black cherry character and good
complexity. Larry's mystery.

1. KostaBrown: These showed up on a local shelf a month ago. My first exposure to these
wines, but I was aware there was a lot of buzz on the Net about them and the Arpy fans
were stampeding after them. I was not all that impressed by them, especially for the
price. They both struck me as big & clunky, overextracted, lacking the perfume I like
in great Pinot. Maybe w/ age they'll evolve into something great, but I'm not going to
put my $$'s on that horse.
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2. DrewPinots: My group has been buying Jason's Syrahs from the very start. They are very
impressive wines. This was our first try at all his Pinots. I thought they were very
attractive Pinots and good renditions of SRH Pinot. But I didn't find the three
particularly different and not of the same high level of his Syrahs. I guess I was
expecting a lot more from them.
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3. KenBrown: The quiet/soft-spoken KenBrown is an icon in SantaBarbaraCnty. He was founding
winemaker at ZacaMesa, training JimClendennan, BobLindquist, and others. He was long-time
winemaker at Byron, leaving a yr or two ago under the Mondavi sell-out to start making
wine under his own label. I finally met Ken several yrs ago when we judged on the same panel
at the SBCnty Fair judging. A nicer guy you'd never want to meet. I was quite impressed
with this Pinot. I expect that now he's no longer in the harness to make high-production
wines, we'll see some impressive wines under his name. Eager to try his Syrah now.
Tom