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. 8 Various Reds
   Had the opportunity to visit SanDiego last week. Easily, the highlight of my trip was dinner with Sam Popkin & a chance to go thru a few Zins. It was a terrific evening: the wines were outstanding, the food very simple but extraordinarily prepared to show off the wines, and, best of all, the company was quite special. I think Sam got a bit carried away w/ the evening.. lots of food & wine .... and he was leaving for Korea the very next morning.
   An incredible guy!
2. The wines:
   
   Clos de la Coulee de Serrant '85: Very lush & rich & fairly sweet Chenin Blanc character. Lots of baby fat & unresolved sugar. This is probably a 15-20 yr Loire. Great now... but will be killer w/ age.
   Domaine Filliatreau Samur-Champiginy Villes Vignes '78: Strong herbal Cab Franc herbaceous green olive nose; soft smooth spicy light herbal complex flavor; in great shape & ready to drink.
   Domaine Olga Rauffault Chinon '78: Light herbal CabFranc rather dusty light earthy/oaked nose; tart richer herbal dusty old vines flavor w/ light tannnins; still will improve for 5 yrs or so.
   Biale Napa Valley Zinfandel Aldo'a Vineyard '93: Med light color; lovely pencilly cedary Fr.oaked spicy raspberry nose; tart spicy raspberry fairly pencilly/ Fr.oaked flavor w/ modest tannins; very nice drink & moving right along but will last another 2-4 yrs.
   Peachy Canyon Dusi Raunch Zinfandel '93: Very dark color; very intense blackberry/ jammy but not overripe nose w/ light oak; big rich intense mouthfilling blackberry/jammy light oaked flavor w/ light oak. A killer PasoRobles Zin. Has improved enormously since I first had it last January. Will last another 3-6 yrs.
   Saddleback Napa Valley Zinfandel '94: Intense smokey pungent charred oak tarry bit blackberry nose; big intense charred oak/taosty/smokey/pungent tannic flavor. Needs much age. Very atypical of Zin & more like Rhone or Languedoc red. When I had this at ZAP in January I really disliked it, thought it rather stinky & utterly bizarre stuff. Liked it a whole lot more here. Very unusual but will probably be extraordinary stuff w/ 10-15 yrs.
   Buehler Napa Valley Zinfandel '79: Intense tarry/smokey/pungent/complex/dusty little fruit nose; soft rich intense charred/pungent/tarry/smokey/ripe/ slight blackberry flavor w/ light tannins. This was the first Buehler Zin, and made by Philip Togni. It was always a killer wine, very atypical then and now. More like a young oaked Barolo or older Hermitage. Still very atypical but really incredible stuff. Zinfandels can age.... even w/ lots of oak. This wine was very much like the Saddleback, in its youth.
   Spring Mountain Late Harvest Cabernet Franc '73: Black color; intense blackberry jammy bit alcoholic no raisened or pruney light oaked nose; big ripe intense blackberry/black cherry/ framboise lush jammy slightly hot flavor; very long intense black cherry finish. Still a young wine & not much complexity showing yet. Even at 16.5% alc, very little alcoholic hotness & no pruney or raisened character. This was the first LateHrvst CabFranc made in Calif (back when Mike Robbins still had a passion for what he was doing), some others have been made since then by Toby James Shumrick (Tobin James), some for other PasoRobles wineries. Shows that high alcohol, late harvest stuff CAN age, thank you.
   
   
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