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.

 

Zinfandel from the 80's
Tasted a few Zins from the '80 w/ my Santa Fe group last week:
Storybook Mountain Vnyds Sonoma Cnty Zin (13.9%) '80: Med.dark color; rather earthy/ mushroomy bit cedary/oaked low fruit some complex nose; soft smooth/round/ spicy/mushroomy some cedary/pencilly/oaked flavor; med.long tart/spicy/cedary mushroomy/earthy finish w/ little tannins; nice complexity & nice drinking Zin.
Calif Shenandoah Vnyds Amadaor County Zin DalPortoVnyd (13.4%) '81: Med.color; rather bretty/horsecollary some blackberry/spicy bit complex nose; soft bit bretty/ horsecollar bit spicy/briary/cherry cough syrup some dried-out flavor; med. long bretty/horsecollar light spicy/cherry cough syrup finish w/ someastringency; interesting old Zin but somewhat dried-out on the palate.
Calif Shenandoah Vnyds Amadaor County Zin SpecialReserve (14.7%) EschenVnyd '81: Med.color; rather black cherry/Eschen/meaty/spicy bit alcoholic some cedary/ tobaccoy/mushroomy nose; soft somewhat alcoholic/hot light black cherry/ meaty/mushroomy bit cedary/toasty/oaked flavor; med. dusty/light black cherry bit astringent/dried-out some cedary/pencilly finish w/ some tannins; lost much of the fruit but some interesting Eschen/black cherry still there.
Santino Fiddletown Amadaor County Special Selection Eschen Vnyd (14%) Zin '81: Med. dark color; very strong chocolate/cherry/black cherry/cough syrup complex dusty/old vines nose; soft/smooth/round cherry/black cherry/cough syrup spicy/ dusty bit alcoholic flavor; very long smooth/round/soft spicy/cherry/black cherry slight cedary/oaked finish w/ light tannins; still lots of that Eschen/cherry character; really come together well & a pleasure to drink.
De Moor Alexander Valley Zin (13.6%) '83: Dark color; slight bretty some blackberry/ dusty/fragrant light pencilly nose; soft/round/smooth some lush fragrant/spicy/ blackberry flavor; long soft/smooth ripe/blackberry/spicy slight bretty finish w/ light tannins; still good blackberry fruit; round & soft & ready to drink.
Buehler Vnyds Napa Valley Zin (13%) '83: Med.dark color; bit charred/toasty/burnt/ oaked rather dusty/peppery low fruit nose; soft bit washed-out some charred/ toasty/burnt/oak bit dried-out flavor; med.short soft/washed-out rather charred/burnt/toasty/oaked finish w/ little fruit & light tannins; mostly well-charred oak & not much else.
La Jota Vnyds Napa Valley Howell Mountain (14.5%) Zin '84: Dark color; rather cedary/mushroomy licorice/very spicy/complex some oaked nose; bit tart some charred oak/complex/ spicy/licorice light blackberry flavor; long complex/very spicy/dusty some toasty/oaked finish w/ light tannins; lost much of the fruit but very good complexity & lots of spice; in great shape for a 16 yr old Zin.
Lytton Springs Wnry Sonoma Cnty Zin (14.4%) '84: Black color; pungent/toasty/ charred/smokey bit funky/complex some blackberry nose; soft/spritzy/off-dry(?) bit funky/unclean some very ripe blackberry rather pungent/toasty flavor; very long spritzy/overripe/over-the-top/off-dry some blackberry pungent/toasty finish w/ some tannins; still a bit an over-the-top/overripe Zin but not faded or dried-out at all.
Page Mill Napa Valley (Balyeat & Volker Eisle Vnyds; 14.0%) Zin '85: Med.color; rather musty/funky/iodine/some corked no fruit nose; tart/lean rather funky/ musty/unclean no fruit dried-out flavor; med.short rather funky/musty/corked lean/dried-out finish w/ some tannins; bit too corked but a dried-out/tired old Zin.
Frog's Leap Napa Valley Zin (13.6%) '86: Med.dark color; very strong very ripe licorice/peppery/smokey/complex over-the-top some blackberry rather pungent nose; soft round lots of charred/toasty/burnt/oak very ripe/blackberry some mushroomy/truffly flavor; very long soft very pungent/charred/toasty/burnt/ oaked some ripe/blackberry finish w/ light tannins; a bit of an over-the-top Zin that I liked a lot for its pungent/Rhonish character; exactly what a Helen Turley/ Martinelli Zin at 13 yrs would be.
Ravenswood Sonoma Cnty (13.4%) Zin '87: Dark color; strong toasty/Fr.oaked/ pencilly/pungent bit volatile/fumey some minty/menthol/complex light blackberry nose; rich spicy/Fr.oaked/minty/menthol pungent/toasty light blackberry bit hard flavor; long complex pungent/toasty/Fr.oaked/minty/menthol some blackberry finish w/ some tannins; a classic Ravenswood; drying out a bit but very tasty and complex.
Mazzocco Sonoma Cnty Zin Traditional Style (13.5%) '88: Med.dark color; slight corked/musty some charred/oaked/pungent light raspberry nose; rather bright raspberry lots of charred/toasty/smokey/oaked pungent bit light flavor; med. long pungent/toasty/cahrred/oak light bright raspberry finish w/ little tannins; lots of pungent/smokey character but still some fruit there; drink up.
Rosenblum Cellars Sonoma Cnty Zin (Old Vines; 13.2%) '88: Dark color; strong dusty/ old-vines blackberry/complex bit eucalyptus nose; attractive soft/round rather blackberry/eucalyptus ripe light pencilly/oaked flavor; long lush blackberry/ spicy/eucalyptus some complex round/smooth finish w/ light tannins; still good blackberry fruit & probably at its peak; really nice drinking.
Calif Shenandoah Vnyds Fiddletown Eschen Vnyds Zin Late Harvest (SaH: 34%; RS: 9%; Alc: 14.9%) '83: Very dark color; very ripe/blackberry/black cherry cough syrup some raisened/briary bit alcoholic nose; sweet raisened/overripe/blackberry/ black cherry very intense fruit bit hot flavor; very long very intense fruit blackberry/black cherry bit raisened/hot/overripe fairly sweet finish w/ some tannins; a bit hot/alcoholic but a very good LateHrvst in great shape.

And a short/succinct bloody pulpit for the fans:
These wines were, to me, in much better condition than I expected. Only the corked PageMill was dead. The real surprise was the Santino. Made by Scott Harvey early on there, it was classic mature Chet Eschen Zin that can still go on; awine w/ lots of complexity & exactly what mature/complex Zin is all about.
Older Zins are tough wines to taste; they don't mature as uniformly and monotonically as, say, Cabs; often developing some unusual characteristics as they age. This group was no exception. Some of the wines that I really liked were roundly villified by others in the group; Larry Archibald, of course, being the most outspoken. My stirring defense of the Frog's Leap Zin brought my sanity, my parentage, and, worse yet, my bowling skills, all into question. All expressed, of course, in a respectful, contrite, fawning, obsequious, servile manner, at the top of their voice, that this wine group usually shows their leader(s)!!