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.

 

David Bruce Retrospective
David Bruce was in town this last week for the SantaFe Wine&Chile Fiesta. So Blair Swartz & I did some archeaology work in our cellars, sat down w/ David and his marketing director, Nick Prokup, a few others in our wine group, and tasted thru a few things out of the archives. The tasting was hosted by Stuart Goodfellow at Kokomann's Circus in Santa Fe.
David Bruce Santa Cruz County White Riesling (16.2%) '79: Dark brown color; strong botrytis/peachy/oaked pencilly complex tobaccoy beautiful old Riesling nose; tart lean dry intense botrytis/peachy some pencilly/oaked tobaccoy/pungent very complex beautiful flavor; very long lingering very complex pungent/ tobaccoy/pencilly botrytis/peachy finish; incredible stuff and a dead ringer for a 30-40 yr old dried-out German BA or TBA Riesling; alcohol not at all evident on the palate; much like old Y-Grec; incredible wine.
David Bruce Santa Cruz County Estate Pinot Noir (14.1%) '78: Brown murkey color; bit musty/corked some pencilly/tobaccoy/oaked nose; tart tired dried-out pencilly/tobaccot/oaked bit oxidized flavor; a rather tired & oxidized Pinot.
David Bruce Santa Cruz Mountains Estate Pinot Noir (15.3%) '80: Brown color; complex pencilly/toasty/oak rather old/Pinot nose; light pencilly/oaked/tobbacoy old Pinot bit oxidized/tired flavor; long very pencilly/tobaccoy/oaked finish; hanging on but just that.
David Bruce Vintners Select Calif Cabernet Sauvignon (12.5%) '84: Med.dark some browning color; bit herbal/old Bordeaux oaked/pencilly nose; tired dried-out bit pencilly/tobaccoy/oaked bit old Bordeaux flavor; pretty tired Cab.
David Bruce Santa Cruz County White Riesling (16.2%) '79: Dark brown color; strong botrytis/peachy/oaked pencilly complex tobaccoy beautiful old Riesling nose; tart lean dry intense botrytis/peachy some pencilly/oaked tobaccoy/pungent very complex beautiful flavor; very long lingering very complex pungent/ tobaccoy/pencilly botrytis/peachy finish; incredible stuff and a dead ringer for a 30-40 yr old dried-out German BA or TBA Riesling; alcohol not at all evident on the palate; much like old Y-Grec; incredible wine.: Brownish murkey color; rather green olive/herbal dusty pencilly/tobaccot some old Bordeaux nose; strong dusty/mushroomy pencilly/tobaccoy/herbal bit green olive flavor; some old Bordeaux character but rather tired on the palate.
David Bruce Calif Grenache (15.5%) '70: Light brownish color; dried out tobaccoy old Zin pencilly bit strawberry nose; tart light pencilly/tobaccoy bit strawberry flavor; pretty far gone.
David Bruce Amador County Zin (14.1%; 70.4% AmadorZin, 29.6% PetiteSirah) '80: Med.dark color; strong plummy/aromatic alcoholic bit Amador/briary nose; tart plummy/briary rather alcoholic old Amador Zin flavor; still a bit of life in the old boy and some interesting old Amador Zin character but fading fast.
David Bruce Santa Clara County Zin (16.4%) '78: Med.dark some browning color; bit musty some tobaccoy/pencilly/oaked very ripe/some raisened/pruney bit hot/ alcoholic flavor; pretty dried out; interesting nose but dried out on the palate.
David Bruce Calif Zin Late Harvest (17.5%) '71: Med. some murkey/brown color; interesting complex pencilly/tobaccoy/oaked almost oldRedBurg some raisened nose; light dried out rather hot/alcoholic finish; interesting nose but just that.
David Bruce Calif Zin Late Harvest/Sweet (17.5%) '71: Med.light browning/murkey color; very ripe rather pruney/raisened bit alcoholic/hot some tobaccoy/ pencilly nose; rather hot/alcoholic austere off-dry tired hot/alcoholic rather raisened/pruney flavor; inbdootp
David Bruce Calif Zin Late Harvest/Sweet (17.5%) '70: Med.light brown/murkey color; strong pruney/raisened tobaccoy/pencilly bit alcoholic nose; med. strong raisened/pruney/overripe hot/alcoholic pencilly/tobaccoy flavor; again indbdootp
David Bruce Calif Zin Essence/Lodi vnyd (16.1%) '74: Med.light browning color; overripe/pruney/raisened dusty/earthy/mushroomy some tobaccoy nose; very sweet raisened/pruney hot/alcoholic bit tobaccoy flavor; again inbdootp; still some of that Lodi/earthy character evident
David Bruce Calif Zin Late Harvest/Essence (17.5%) '71: Med. browning/murkey color; very ripe/overripe pruney/raisened some tobaccoy/pencilly nose; pretty sweet overripe/raisened/pruney tobaccoy flavor; again inbdootp

And the traditional bloody pulpit:

As in most tasting of older/mature/over-mature wines; it is an interesting intelluctual experience, but seldom a great sensual experience. Don't think I would have enjoyed any of these wines at a meal. The wines were opened immediately, decanted, and poured. In many cases, after 10-15 minutes in the glass or decanter, whatever was there interesting initially had disappated and nothing was left but a tired hollow empty shell of a wine.
What was really ironic was the (easily) best wine of the collection was the wine I expected to be totally dead.... the white wine!! The Estate White Riesling is a stunning/complex/beautiful mature old white. It reminded me very much of some 30-40-50 old German BA/TBA Rheingaus that I've had; also much like some old Y-Grecs (the dry Ch. d'Yquem) and a bit like some very old Aussie Semillons. It is probably only because of my experience w/ these other old wines that I liked this David Bruce so much; most other drinkers would dismiss it as an old/tired/oxidized white wine. In its youth, this Estate White Riesling was rather strange (to say the least) stuff w/ a fair amount of the traditional David Bruce oak. Thank Blair for the forsight of sticking this thing away for 20 yrs. One wonders how many other Calif Rieslings out there will age into something so interesting as this??
The Grenache was, to me, a major disappointment; I was expecting it to still have a bit of life in it. It's a wine that brings back fond memories. Back around 1974, Blair & I had gone up to visit David (for the first time) for one of his weekend tastings out on his deck overlooking the SanLorenzoVlly. A quintessential SantaCruzMtn experience. David poured this Grenache. It was, then, a very reduced wine; stinky, sewer-gas, H2S; but man was it packed with flavor. Same story the Carignan and Black Muscat. As David went out to cut some bread; all the tasters started looking at each other, raising their eyebrows, & immediately dumping the stuff. The conversation hushed immediately when David returned and he moved on to the Zins, which showed much better. Despite the stench in the Grenache, I liked what it tasted like and bought some bottles to stick away. At somewhere around 8-12 yrs of age, it had lost all that stink & had this incredibly perfumey/strawberry/aromatic aroma. It was my first glimpse at what Grenache could potentially do in Calif in terms of great red wine (and it's been one long wait, I must say). I last had this wine about 6-8 yrs ago, and it was barely holding on.
Back in the '70-'71 vintage, David made all these Late Harvest wines at 15%- 16%-17%-18% alcohol levels; pushing the envelope as far as he could. I was just learning Calif wines/Zinfandel then and just KNEW that these wines would age forever!! The late John Brennan predicted, in his tasting notes book published down in SanDiego (btw: if you're still out there, John, you still owe me $15 for the preorder edition that you never brought out!! Still got the receipt!); that these wines would PEAK about the years 2010-2020!! So much for "expert" opinions (including the ones expressed here!!). In their youth, the wines were incredibly intense in fruit, loads of toasty Fr.oak, loads of tannins.... everything you need for a red wine to age forever!! Maybe there really is something to be said for "balance" after all! The wines were bottled by David directly from the barrel, and showed a lot of variability amongst bottles and over the yrs. The grapes came from the old Mary Carter vnyd down south of San Jose towards Gilroy and, to get the Zin, David also had to take the Black Muscat, Grenache, and Carignane. Those, too, he made in this style. They, too, were pretty interesting. The opponents of alcohol in Zins (you KNOW who you are out there!!) will, of course, cite these note as clear examples of the generalization that high- alcohol, big, extracted wines don't age (read Turley here!!). Such a generalization is like most generalizations.... don't fit specific cases. At 8-10-15 yrs, these wines were pretty interesting wines; though still pretty big & extracted. But they just didn't make it to 30 yrs of age. Yet I have had some alcoholic, late harvest Zins at 20 yrs that were pretty wonderful wines. You pays your money (to Larry Turley) and takes your chances! When I bought these wines back in '73-'74; I planned to stash them away and do a tasting of them all at 10-20-and 30- yrs. I did the 10-yr one & wrote an article for (the late but not lamented) Vintage magazine. At the 20-yr tasting, the wines were getting pretty shakey. So I, afterall, outlived those wines (I still do have a pulse, last time I checked); not what I expected. So...... this represents the passing of an era for me. I'll probably never again taste a collection of these wines again such as this bunch. Whot a pity..... the afternoon w/ David brought back some very fond memories. 5. These wines have no relation to what David is doing nowadays. They represent a period when he (and others) were just pushing the winemaking to the limits to see what they could do. In the mid-'80's, I sorta lost interest in David's wines and didn't think them particularly interesting. He, of course, lost all of his Estate vnyd to Pierce's disease and has had to replant. But the last two times I've visited w/ David, it's been clear that he still has his passion here for wines, certainly for the elusive GREAT Calif Pinot Noir. The David Bruce wines I've had from the '94-'96 vintages I have been very impressed with. His '96 Estate Syrah was as fine a Syrah that has ever been made in Calif. I intend to keep much closer track of his wines in the future. And it WOULD be OK for him to make one of these old-style Zinfandels again. I'd buy it..... though probably wouldn't plan to be following its evolution over a 30-yr period again (not that I won't be around... I will!)