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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.

Some Archive Wines - November 27, 2013

We tasted last night (11/27/13) some Archive Wines:

  1. AlbanVnyds Roussanne AlbanEstateVnyd/EdnaVlly (14.5%) 2000: Deep golden/bronze color; strong toasted coconuty/toasty/charred/oak honeyed/toasted hazelnuts/nutty/aged Roussanne some oxidized complex nose; tart/tangy rich/lush toasted coconut/toasty/oak old Rouss/toasted hazelnutty/nutty slight oxidized flavor w/ strong bitterness;very long some honeyed/old Rouss/toasted hazelnuts/nutty strong charred/toasty/oak/coconutty slight oxidized complex finish w/ strong bitterness.
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  2. AlbanVnyds Roussanne AlbanEstateVnyd/EdnaVlly (14.4%) 1998: Slightly lighter golden/bronze color; bit oxidized/sherry toasted/charred/oak less honeyed/toasted hazelnuts/old Roussanne more aged/oxidized complex nose; softer noticibly oxidized/sherry some old Roussanne/toasted hazelnuts rather bitter flavor; long somewhat oxidized/sherry some old Roussanne/toasted hazelnuts finish w/ definite bitterness; more oxidized & less interesting/intense than the 2000.
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  3. Sellards Zin DryCreekVlly/SonomaCnty (14.5%) ThomasSellardsWnry/Sebastapol 1981: Med.dark color w/ some bricking; rather cedary/pencilly/old Zin rather earthy/dusty slight raspberry fairly complex nose; soft some dried out/astringent rather cedary/pencilly/oak/old Zin earthy/dusty complex flavor; med.long cedary/pencilly/old Zin somewhat earthy/dusty finish w/ drying/astringent tannins; barely hanging on and just oldZin character remaining.$7.50
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  4. RosenblumCllrs Zin CullinanVnyd/SonomaCnty (70 yr old vines; 1/2 ton/acre; 12.9%) Emeryville 1983: Med.color w/some bricking & bit of browning; strong menthol/minty/eucalyptus some blackberry/boysenberry/Zin bit toast/oaknslight cedary/pencilly complex nose; soft some menthol/eucalyptus bit boysenberry/blackberry/Zin bit cedary/pencilly somewhat lush flavor w/ slight drying/astringent tannins; long some menthol/eucalyptus some lush/blackberry/boysenberry/Zin light cedary/pencilly complex finish w/ bit astringent tannins; still carrying some fruit and hanging onto life but heading down. $6.75
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  5. RosenblumCllrs Zin NapaVlly (11% NapaVlly PS; 13.4%) Emeryville 1983: Med.color w/ slight bricking; rather cedary/pencilly/old Zin slight blackberry/Zin/eucalyptus some complex bit tired nose; soft rather pencilly/cedary/old Zin slight eucalyptus slight blackberry/Zin flavor w/ some tired/astringent tannins; med.short soft/smooth light blackberry/Zin some cedary/pencilly/old Zin finish w/ somewhat tired/drying tannins; barely clinging to life but not totally shot. $7.50
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  6. Elyse NeroMisto NapaVlly RTW (60% PS/25% Zin/15% lesser known blacks; 12.9%) 1990: Med.dark color w/ slight bricking;some wet wool/wet Army blanket bit earthy/dusty/OV very little fruit nose; soft/smooth some earthy/dusty very little fruit bit wet wool/peppery/old PS light toasty/oak flavor w/ gentle/smooth tannins; med.long soft/smooth bit wet wool/ funky slight peppery/PS finish w/ smooth/ gentle tannins; not much fruit left; a fully mature quiet/gentle sort of PS that doesn't have a lot going for it.
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  7. AlbanVnyds Grenache AlbanEstateVnyd/EdnaVlly (14.2%) 1998: Dark color w/ slight bricking; strong toasty/smokey/pencilly/oaky very strong blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah-like/big fruit bit complex nose; fairly tart big fruit/strawberry/blackberry/boysenberry/very ripe some toasty/oak/smokey/charred fairly smooth flavor w/ light/gentle tannins; very long quite tart very strong boysenberry/blackberry/strawberry strong charred/toasty/smokey oak finish w/ smooth/well-integrated tannins; not developed a lot of complexity and dominated by big Syrah-like fruit and charred oak; seems only to have smoothed out the tannins w/ age.
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  8. AlbanVnyds Syrah Reva AlbanEstateVnyd/EdnaVlly (14.1%) 1998: Very dark color w/ little bricking; somewhat reduced/sewer gas very strong blackberry/Syrah/spicy/peppery/licorice strong smokey/toasty/ oak/charred rather complex fragrant nose; fairly tart slight pungent/sewer gas/reduced very strong blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah some smokey/charred/oak bit complex flavor w/some hard tannins remaining; very long bit reduced/sewer gas very strong blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah/licorice/peppery
    strong charred/oak/smokey some peppery/spicy/pungent finish w/ some hard tannins; still huge fruit and developing at a glacial rate; don't see it getting a whole lot better nor developing much complexity.
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  9. GarretsonWineCo Syrah TheAisling PasoRobles (13.8%) 1998: Closed w/ a NeoCork & not a good sign; med.color w/some browning; very ripe/blackberry/Syrah somewhat jammy/herbal/menthol rather interesting/complex nose; soft some herbal/rosemary very ripe/jammy/boysenberry/Syrah maybe off-dry slight oxidized rather late harvesty flavor w/ light/soft tannins; med.long very ripe/jammy/boysenberry /Syrah slight herbal slight oxidized off-dry/late harvesty finish w/ light/soft tannins; rather on the late harvesty side but still in quite good shape for a Garretson, especially w/ a NeoCork.


And the usual stuff from the BloodyPulpit:

1. AlbanRoussanne: Age has not been kind to these wines. Both had a noticible oxidized component. Both were interesting wines but they had a stron bitter component on the palate that made them unattractive. Because oftheir age, they were served at cool room temperature, but the bitterness was still off-putting.
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2. Rosenblum: Note the Emeryville address. That's where Kent was making his first wines afore he bought the old locomotive repair bldg on Alameda NAS property that was excessed off. Don't know if there are any Emeryville wnrys these days or not. Did a visit to several in the long past: J.W.Morris PortWorks (JimOlsen) and Veedercrest (Al Baxter), in an old ShellOil VanDeGraf accelerator bldg. And had my first visit w/ Steve Edmunds, out back of the OaksCardShop.
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3. Alban: I liked both the Grenache & the Syrah quite a bit...but because of their huge fruit & size, but, w/ 15 yrs of age, they are not developing a whole lot of complexity. I have my doubts they ever will.

TomHill

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