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. Joseph Swan Vineyards Sonoma Mtn Pinot Noir Steiner Vnyd (13.5%) 1998: Light color; attractive bright cherry fragrant/ Burgundian/pencilly/oak spicy/cloves complex nose; rather sour some bright cherry/sour cherry light pencilly/oak spicy flavor; med.long light/elegant/delicate sour cherry/Pinot finish w/ light tannins; very attractive nose but a nasty sour streak on the palate; rather delicate Pinot. Not worth $30.00
2. Joseph Swan Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinot Noir Trenton Estate Vnyd / Pentagon Reserve (13.5%) 1997: Med.color; deeper earthy/dusty rather black cherry/Pinot rather aromatic/bit volatile interesting/complex slight toasty/ oak nose; tart deep black chery/Pinot some toasty/Fr.oak bit hot dusty/complex flavor; med.long toasty/ Fr.oak some black cherry finish w/ light tannins; pleasant/interesting $30 Pinot. $60.
3. Hartley-Ostini Hitching Post Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vnyd Pinot Noir (13.5%) 1995: Med.color; pungent/smokey/ toasty/Fr.oak very fragrant/plummy/black cherry slight herbal very aromatic nose; soft/smooth elegant/ plummy/black cherry some smokey/Fr.oak/pencilly slight bretty/funky quite perfumed flavor; long smooth pencilly/toasty/Fr.oak rather plummy/black cherry finish w/ light tannins; nice BienNacido plummy/black cherry character; probably at or beyond its peak.
4. Soter Beacon Hill Yamhill Cnty OR Pinot Noir (13.6%) 1998: Med.dark color; rather earthy/dusty some plummy/Pinot rather strong toasty/pungent/Fr.oak quite volatile slight chocolaty nose; big/hard/astringent chunky bit earthy/dusty some plummy/chocolaty low fruit toasty/oak flavor; med.long earthy toasty/smokey/oak slight plummy/ripe rather gritty/astringent finish w/ ample tannins; a kind of blocky/clumsey Pinot that may turn into something but I don't see it.
5. Siduri Anderson Valley Cerise Vnyd Pinot Noir (14.6%) 2001: Med.color; strong coffee/toasty/mocha/oaked rather fragrant/perfumed cherry/black cherry nose; tart some coffee/mocha/toasty/oak bit tannic/hard bright cherry/black cherry/cola flavor; med.long toasty/coffee/mocha/oak bright spicy/cherry/black cherry/Pinot finish w/ some tannins; needs a yr or two; lots of that bright AndersonValley cherry Pinot fruit; one of the best AndersonVnny Pinots I've had in some time. $50.00
6. Siduri Sonoma Coast Hirsch Vnyd Pinot Noir (14.2%) 2001: Med.color; strong black cherry/Pinot loads of Pinot fruit some tobaccoy/pencilly/oak very perfumed/fragrant nose; tart bit lean bright cherry/black cherry light toasty/pencilly/oak flavor; very long spicy/cherry/black cherry/Pinot light tobaccoy/pencilly finish w/ some tannins; loads of bright Pinot fruit but a bit lean on palate and needs a yr or two; probably the most pure Pinot of the tableau; beautiful wine.
7. Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Pisoni Vnyd Pinot Noir (www.Siduri.com; 14.5%) 2001: Med.color; beautiful perfumed/ aromatic black cherry/Pinot very spicy slight minerally bit herbal/complex nose; tart big/tannic very spicy/ perfumed big black cherry/Pinot some minerally extracted flavor; very long black cherry/Pinot very spicy bit cloves light oak finish w/ some tannins; a big rich very spicy some complex Pinot. My favorite of the Pinots for the spiciness it has.
8. Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Garys' Vnyd Pinot Noir (14.8%) 2001: Med.color; brighter perfumed bit more earthy very fragrant/black cherry/Pinot bit simpler/less spicy nose; bright cherry/black cherry/Pinot bit brighter less complex flavor; very long less tannic bright cherry/black cherry finish w/ some tannins; more bright cherry fruit & less depth and spiciness & less tannins; but a beautiful Pinot.
9. Siduri Russian River Valley Sapphire Hill Vnyd Pinot Noir (14.3%) 2001: Med.color; slight earthy/mushroomy fragrant/slight volatile rather black cherry/Pinot light pencilly/oak nose; softer strong black cherry/Pinot slight earthy/ mushroomy/stewed tomatoes light pencilly/oak flavor; long black cherry/Pinot some earthy/mushroomy finish w/ light tannins; shows plenty of that RRV earthy-Pinot character; probably the most forward & drinkable of this tableau.
10. Siduri Sonoma Mtn Van der Camp Vnyd Pinot Noir (14.6%) 2001: Med.color; slight earthy strong black cherry/Pinot very fragrant/perfumed light pencilly/toasty/oak nose; tart fairly rich strong black cherry/cola/Pinot spicy/perfumed some pencilly/menthol/oak flavor; very long black cherry/cola spicy finish w/ some tannins; needs a yr or two yet.
11. Siduri Santa Rita Hills Clos Pepe Vnyd Pinot Noir (15.4%) 2001: Med.dark color; beautiful/fragrant black cherry/cola/ boysenberry slight volatile/perfumed light pencilly/Fr.oak big nose; rich intense fruit/black cherry/cola/ blackberry slight licorice big/deep/extracted slight pencilly flavor; very long rather tannic intense black cherry/cola light pencilly finish; needs a few yrs to show and will probably be pretty long-lived.
12. Siduri Santa Rita Hills Cargasacchi Vnyd Pinot Noir (15.2%) 2001: Dark color; very intense blackberry/black cherry/ cola/boysenberry almost Syrah-like rather perfumed/fragrant/floral light toasty/oak huge nose; big/rich/ extracted black cherry/cola/boysenberry perfumey light toasty/oak slight earthy/minerally flavor; very long/lingering intense black cherry/cola/boysenberry light pungent/toasty/oak finish w/ fair tannins; needs more age; almost Syrah-like in its extraction but the Pinot fragrance is there; terrific wine and my second favorite of the tableau.
13. Patricia Green Cllrs Yamhill Cnty Estate Pinot Noir (13%) 2000: Med.color; some H2S/stink that clears to earthy/ pungent some herbal nose w/ little Pinot fruit; tart/lean bit thin somewhat earthy/pungent very walnutty low fruit rather toasty/Fr.oak flavor; hard/tannic walnutty finish. An hour later in the decanter, the wine had blossomed into a very perfumed/fragrant bright cherry/black cherry some pencilly/oak Pinot. Obviously needs to breathe; terrific OR Pinot then.
14. Failla Willamette Valley Goldschmidt Vnyd Pinot Noir (13.9%) 2001: Dark some murky/cloudy color; strong earthy/ walnutty rather toasty/Fr.oak/pungent slight black cherry nose; tart walnutty pungent/toasty/smokey/oak slight black cherry hard/tannic flavor; med.long dusty/walnutty strong pungent/toasty/oak quite tannic finish; not a lot of fruit and big/hard/tannic wine; have to accept on faith that it will develop into something; certainly the tannin's are there.
15. Sine Que Non A-cappella Oregon Pinot Noir Shea Vnyd (14.3%) 2000: Med.color; lovely/perfumed very spicy/bright/ cherry/Pinot some pencilly/oak slight earthy/dusty complex nose; tart/spicy some pencilly/Fr.oak bit lean bright/spicy/cherry/cherry pie flavor; very long tart/lean very bright/spicy/cherry/Pinot light pencilly/ oak finish w/ some tannins; a lovely bright OR Pinot, unusually restrained for a ManfredKrankl wine.
16. Domaine Perrot-Minot Morey St.Denis Vielles Vigner 1er Cru La Riotte 1999: Med.dark color; intense boysen- berry/framboise/cassis/black cherry loads of fruit/perfumed slight earthy/pungent nose; hard/tannic/lean rather cherry/strawberry/Pinot light pungent/earthy flavor; med.long tart/hard/lean bright cherry/straw- berry/framboise finish w/ ample tannins; incredible/exotic nose but hard & tannic on the palate; needs much age; more like an OR Pinot than RedBurg. Steve's mystery wine.
17. Chateau de LaTour Clos Vougeot 1990: Med.dark color; very fragrant perfumed/Pinot slight peppery/herbal light oaked rather complex lovely slight RedBurg/pencilly nose; bit hard/lean elegant/spicy cherry/floral/ violets slight herbal/peppery slight walnutty flavor; very long/lingering complex cherry/pencilly bit hard/lean finish; showing nice complexity but should age longer. Howard&Rhoda's mystery wine.
    

1. 1. Siduri Pinots: I've followed Adam & Diana's Novy Syrahs Syrahs from the very start; but have only come to his Pinots over the last yr or so; trying one here and there and liking them a lot. It's no secret here about the quality of their Pinots. Since my group had ordered all of the Fall release wines, they were urging me to try them all together, so this tasting. I was mightly impressed with the wines. First, they all displayed significant distinctiveness (terroir?), even the two SantaLucia pair from adjacent Vineyards. They all showed a purity of Pinot fruit that I really liked, except maybe for the two ripe SantaRitaHills versions. They all showed a restrained use of the oak; never was it intrusive or obvious. When you make this many Pinots from such diverse Vineyards, it's easy to become formulaic in your winemaking, shoehorning all the grapes into the same winemaking style. Sure didn't feel this was the case here. When they grapes called for it or could support it, they seemed to tweak up the oak a bit; if not, they didn't. It was hard for me to identify some common Siduri winemaking thread thru all the wines, other than everything seemed to be in very harmonious balance. Not particularly big or extracted Pinots, I suspect the balance in them will carry these wines for a good many yrs. An impressive parcel of Pinots.
   2. Siduri SantaRitaHills Pinots: These wines were both above 15% alcohol. Some people thought they had a bit of heat to them, but I thought they carried the alcohol well and didn't notice it. They didn't have the brightness of cherry/Pinot fruit to them that the others did. The Clos Pepe version was much different from Wes Hagen's version, which tends to have a very bright/minerally fruit to them and more of a leanness on the palate. The Cargasacchi was much more like the Sanford and the Babcock versions I tried w/ Peter; loaded w/ deep/intense more blackberry-like almost a Syrah-like fruit to them w/ big concentration. Both very interesting renditions of PinotNoir.
   3. SoterPinot: The first btl of this we had several months ago was dreadfully corked. Replaced by LazyAcres (SantaBarbara), this was second stab at the wine. Apparently Rivoni liked the wine quite a bit; to me, it tasted a bit like a Pinot made by a Cabernet producer.
   4. PatriciaGreen Pinot: Patty Green was formerly winemaker for ToriMor wnry. She now owns the former Autum Wind vnyd and winery, from where this Pinot came. I hah had this wine w/ Joel Butler last Sept in SantaFe and liked it quite a lot. This bottle was rather strange and didn't show the fruit that that earlier btl showed at first, but then really blossomed in the decanter.
   5. A-Cappella: Not at all what I expected.... which was a big/extracted/oaked Pinot. This wine had a lot of bright Pinot fruit and an elegance to it that was quite striking. 
   TomHill