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. Qupe Marsanne (Ibarra-Young Marsanne, Stolpman Roussanne) 2000: Light yellow color;  clean/crisp appley/floral simple/Marsanne nose; tart/crisp clean appley bright Marsanne no oak flavor; young and needs age to show much; classic underwhelming young Marsanne.
2. Qupe Marsanne 1995: Med.dark gold color; strong nutty bit oxidized some fragrant/floral/ honeysuckle some complex nose; tart nutty/hazelnutty slight oxidized some floral/ honeysuckle complex flavor; seems pretty typical aged Marsanne but maybe a bit old  before its time.
3. Qupe Marsanne 1994: Med.gold color; lovely complex smokey/pungent slight herbal almost SB-like light oaked nose; soft/smooth/round lush elegant bit herbal smokey/pungent quite  complex flavor; fully mature lovely/elegant/complex Marsanne.
4. Qupe Roussanne Bien Nacido Vineyard 2000: Very strong/fragrant/perfumed light Fr.oak slight volatile lift rather aromatic/floral nose; soft/lush some Fr.oaked rich/lush/floral/ spicy flavor; very nicely made lovely Roussanne.
5. Qupe Central Coast Syrah 2000: Dark color; bit funky/pungent/Rhonish light blackberry/ Syrah quite interesting nose; soft spicy/funky/earthy/Rhonish light blackberry/Syrah flavor w/ light tannins; really starting to show nicely now; great/easy drinking.
6. Qupe Bien Nacido Reserve Syrah 1999: Very dark color; strong smokey/pungent mocha/Fr.oaked toasty rather spicy/blackberry/Syrah perfumed nose; tart bit hard/lean mocha/toasty/Fr.oak/ smokey pungent loads of blackberry/Syrah fruit flavor; not the bright/lush Syrah/fruit wine that I remember a few months ago; seems a bit hard & closed right now.
7. Qupe Bien Nacido Hillside Reserve Syrah 1997: Very dark color; beautiful/intense pungent/ gamey/mocha/roasted complex some blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah fragrant nose; soft very lush smokey/pungent/roasted/toasted gamey/Syrah/blackberry slight charred/green olive quite complex flavor w/ some tannins; still can use a yr or two. Haven't had this in well over a year and it's really a beautiful Syrah now.
8. Qupe Bien Nacido Reserve Syrah 1994: Very dark color; intense blackberry/boysenberry smokey/dusty/pungent bit roasted/espresso/NorthernRhone complex; beautiful rich/smokey/ pungent/charred/Fr.oak some roasted/mocha very strong blackberry/Syrah bit gamey rather complex smooth/round flavor; tasting really beautifully now and probably near its peak.

1. Bob was hosting a winemaker dinner at DocMartin's restaurant at the TaosInn. It's a restaurant I've always enjoyed over the years and one that has one of the better wine lists in NewMexico. Chef Scott Radek's menu was: Assorted Hor d'Oeuvres Butter Poached Petite Lobster Tail w/ Lemon Sabayon on Basil Ravioli Cassoulet of Duck w/ Seared Duck Breast and FoieGras Sausage Mixed Greens w/ Pear & Pomengranate Seeds Colorado Double Lamb Chop w/ Roasted Vegetables, Polenta, & Balsamic Jus Apple Tart Tatin The menu was particularly well-executed, especially the Lobster and the lamb. The Roussanne and the lobster were probably the best match of the evening.
2. Marsanne: Bob's Marsannes are always pretty underwhelming upon their release and show a lot of simple/appley character. This is a wine that badly needs some age on it to show the complexity of which it is capable. The '95 was pretty much what I've come to expect in fully mature Marsanne; a slightly hazelnutty near-oxidized character that a lot of people don't particularly like. The people at my table pretty much dismissed as a too-old/oxidized white wine. I liked it quite a bit, but thought it a bit further along than I expected of a '9However, the '94 was probably about the best mature Marsanne I've ever had. It had a slightly herbal character that I'd never found in them before, a roundness & lushness on the palate, and a wonderful complexity. Beautiful wine.
3. Roussanne: Bob makes two Roussannes, a Bien Nacido  Vineyard version and an Alban  Vineyard one. They are sorta betwixt his Chard and his Marsannes. Lovely aromatics w/ a slight touch of Fr.oak and a slight volatile lift to them. I like his Chards a lot, but often find them w/ a pretty hefty dose of oak and sometimes a little volatile. The Alban Roussanne though, is almost always my favorite; with a steely backbone to it that the Bien Nacido somewhat lacks.
4. Central Coast Syrah 2000: I remember when I tasted this on its debut tasting at the SantaFe Wine&Chile Fiesta in September and proclaiming it the lightest/weakest most ordinary Central Coast Syrah Bob has yet made. Tasted a month later, I was still very unimpressed with it. But, tonight, it was really tasting wonderful and had put on considerable weight since last September. Bob thinks it's one of his better Central Coast Syrahs, but I'm not sure I agree (yet) on that one. The wine contains a little Lodi old vine Carignane and Zin and a shot of far-EastSidePaso French Camp Syrah. This gives the wine a certain earthy/funky character that resembles a lot a better Cotes-du-Rhone. I liked it a lot better in the early '90's when I thought it had more Santa Barbara Syrah in it and more of an expression of pure Syrah. So it's changed some over the yrs. It is probably one of my most favorite restaurant wines I order and, because it comes often in half btls, I probably drink over 10-15 btls in restaurants over a year's time. But I never ceased to be amazed on how this wine seems to put on weight from its release every year at SFW&CF.
5. Bien Nacido Reserve Syrah: This is another wine that seems to put on weight with age. Both of these tonight were nowhere near the lightweights I remember when I first tasted them upon release.
6. Mocha character: One of the techniques Bob uses in his Hillside Syrah is to saignee some of the juice off early on and put it into new Francois Freres barrels. I once tasted this  in Paso and it showed an overwhelming mocha.coffee character. Some of this is then blended back into the Hillside Syrah to give it the additional complexity of that mocha/coffee character. The rest goes into the regular Reserve Bien Nacido or the Central Coast.

TomHill

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