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.

 

Navarro Winery Releases
Tasted last week some new Navarro Winery releases:
Navarro Anderson Valley Pinot Gris (13.4%; RS: 0.39%) '98: Med.gold color; fragrant PG bit smokey/almondy/perfumed ripe nose; rich textured oily/smokey/spicy/PG floral flavor; long rich/textured/oily fragrant/floral/smokey/almondy/marzipan finish; a rather Alsatian-style PG w/ lots of richness & texture; a lovely well-made/tasty white far better than any Calif PinotGrigio.
Navarro Mendocino Chenin Blanc (13.1%; RS: 0.48%) '98: Light yellow color; pleasant spicy clean CB light pear nose; bit metallic simple/fragrant CB/pear flavor; med.short soft ripe pear/ CB finish; a pleasant simple quaffable CB at a good price. $9.50
Navarro Estate Gewurztraminer (13.6%; RS: 0.48%) '98: Med.gold color; very fragrant/spicy/cinnamon/ cloves aromatic/Gewurztraminer/lychee nose; off-dry soft spicy/floral/lychee/Gewurztraminer clean bit cinammon/ clove flavor; med.long spicy/floral/Gewurztraminer/lychee bit cinammon finish; would like it a bit leaner & drier but a very nicely-made near-Alsatian-style Gewurztraminer.
Navarro Cuvee Traditional Dry Anderson Mendocino Gewurztraminer (13.1%) '90: Med.gold color; rather strong/piney/PineSol bit spicy/complex/cinammon bit dusty/wet pavement slight oxidized nose; dry lean/tart/bit metallic light dusty/wet pavement rather piney/PineSol low fruit/ spicy flavor; med.short rather piney/PineSol dusty/wet pavement bit spicy/Gewurztraminer slight oxidized finish; time has not been kind to this wine but some interesting things therein; nose becomes very petrol/old Riesling/piney as it warms. $nc (Larry's mystery wine)
Navarro Cuvee 128 Mendocino Sauvignon Blanc (13.3%; RS: 0.3%) '98: Light yellow color; very fragrant/spicy/SB light herbal rather grapefruity nose; off-dry floral/spicy/SB/light herbal/ earthy tart quite grapefruity flavor; med.short tart spicy/herbal/SB grapefruity bit metallic finish; a bit too K-J'd for me but a pleasant clean simple SB.
Navarro Chardonnay Table Wine (13.2%; RS:0.45%!!) '98: Light gold color; fragrant appley/ cinammon/cloves/apple pie almost Muscat-like fragrance; soft appley/apple pie/spicy fragrant/ Chard flavor; med.short spicy/apple pie/Chard simple finish; a simple pleasant Chard that blows away the K-J or Fetzer Sundial, at a great price. $8.08
Navarro Chardonnay Mendocino (13.4%) '97: Med.gold color; loght toast/oak ripe appley some fragrant/pineapply nose; tart ripe fairly rich/textured spicy/appley/pineappley light toasty/ pungent/oak flavor; med.long light toasty/oak spicy/appley/pineapply/Chard finish; very nicely done Chard at a good price. $13.50
Navarro Anderson Valley Premier Reserve Chardonnay (13.6%) '97: Very strong corked/musty nose; soft very strong musty/corked some toasty/smokey/pungent flavor; much too corked to tell anything.
Navarro Mendocino Pinot Noir (13.8%) '97: Very light red color; fragrant spicy/cherry/PN lots of fruit light cinammon/spicy/oak some smoked hot dog nose; tart spicy smoked hot dog/spicy very fruity/cherry/black cherry bit dusty/earthy flavor; med.long smoked/hot dog/pungent bright cherry/dusty finish w/ light tannins; very nice forward-drinking PN at a good price. $13.50
Navarro Pinot Noir Method a l'Ancienne Anderson Valley '96: Med.light color; deep toasty/oaked/ Burgundian bit smokey/charred very fragrant/perfumed/black cherry complex nose; fairly rich/ smokey/pungent/toasty lots of deep/black cherry fruit spicy/dusty/complex flavor; very long ripe/black cherry/dusty/spicy some toasty/charred/pungent finish w/ some tannins; needs several yrs; very good Anderson Valley PN in a Burgundian style. $25.00
Navarro Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Deep End Blend (13.9%) '97: Med.color; deep dusty toasted/oak smokey very spicy/black cherry some complex nose; strong very spicy/black cherry strong pungent/toasty/oaked/smokey complex flavor; very long pungent/toasty/charred/oak very spicy/ black cherry dusty/complex finish w/ fair tannins; needs a yr or two; much like the M a'lA but a bit more deep/black cherry/Pinot fruit.
Navarro Mendocino Cabernet Sauvignon '93: Very dark color; very strong herbal/earthy/dusty low fruit bit toasty/oak nose; tart earthy/dusty rather strong herbal/Cab some toasty/charred oak flavor; fairly long herbal tart earthy/dusty charred/toasty/oak finish w/ some tannins; still needs some age but a rather herbal/hard sort of Cab.
Navarro Mendocino Zinfandel (15.4%) '94: Very dark color; strong oaked/toasty/cinammon rather smoked/hot dog some dusty/blackberry nose; tart rich blackberry/tarry/earthy very blackberry smokey almost Languedoc-like flavor; long dusty/tarry/blackberry some toasty/charred/oak finish w/ some tannins; still needs another 2-5 yrs; best Navarro Zin I've ever had.
Navarro Mendocino Zin (14.6%) '97: Med.color; bright raspberry/blackberry bit toasty/oaked some earthy nose; light spicy/raspberry/blackberry light toasty/oaked earthy/dusty flavor; med.short spicy/raspberry/blackberry light toasty/oak dusty finish w/ light tannins; a pleasant light rather underwhelming Zin.
Navarro Anderson Valley Gewurztraminer Late Harvest (11.1%; RS: 7.1%) '98: Med.gold color; strong botrytis/peachy/apricotty very grapey/lychee/very ripe nose; tart strong lychee/Gewurztraminer some peachy/botrytis very ripe grape lots of fruit fairly sweet flavor; very long very ripe fruit/ lychee/Gewurztraminer some peachy/apricotty/botrytis finish; loads of ripe Gewurztraminer fruit w/ a light hit of botrytis; a steal for this price. $9.98/hlf
Navarro White Riesling Cluster Select Late Harvest Andeson Vlly (SaH: 43.1Brix; 10.0%; RS: 28%; TA: 11.4 g/l) '97: Dark gold color; very strong/intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty very honeyed slight EA/volatile pineapply nose; clean very rich/sweet tart intense peachy/ botrytis/apricotty bit earthy flavor; very long lingering very intense peachy/botrytis/ apricotty tart finish; incredible/intense TBA that will age forever. $40.50

And the usual mumblings from the bloody pulpit:
Navarro & Alsace: To my judgement, Navarro probably does the best job of anyone in Calif in making Alsatian Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Gris. Too many times, most wineries leave too much residual sugar. Navarro seems a bit more restrained along that line, but still they often have a bit too much Kendall-Jacksonized character to them. Even so, alas, they still don't hold a candle to a half-way decent Alsatian Gewurztraminer or Riesling. If I want good Alsatian-style white wine from Calif, I go to..... Viognier or Roussanne!!
Navarro Reds: The Anderson Valley is one of the very most special sites in Calif for Pinot. They often have a lot of bright cherry fruit that reminds me a lot of Oregon Pinots. The Navarro versions of this variety are consistently among the finest from the Anderson Valley, usually made in a rather Burgundian style w/ a fair amount of toasty/charred oak. That being said, I am pretty underwhelmed by the other Navarro reds. They are usually nicely done wines, but not nearly of the same class of their Pinots. The taste like red wines made by a Pinot producer. I would like to see a bit more depth and extraction in them.
Navarro Stickies: When it comes to sweet wines, hardly anyone in Calif does it better; at a better price, and with more consistency, than Ted & Deborah. Nooooone!! The LateHrvest ones, where the botrytis often plays a minor role, are just about the best of that genre in Calif. But when it comes to BA/TBA-style wines; Navarro is the one. They tend to have much more acidity than many of the other Calif analogs, which makes them age longer. The tend to be cleaner, w/ less VA, than most of the others. And always fairly priced.
Anderson Valley Cabernet: Since the Anderson Valley is usually regarded as prime Pinot country; most folks tend to dismiss it as an area for good/great Cabernets. The Navarro Cabs I've had would tend to support this assertion. However, back in the late '70's, Jed Steele, when he was at Edmeades, made a few absolutely stunning Cabs, from Ciapusci and DuPratt Cabernet grapes; several of which were bottled under Corti Reserve labels. They were as fine a Cabernet as any I've had in all of California, in an elegant style.
Howard & Rhoda Sherry, whose cellar is 74.39% made up of Navarro wines, provided the wines for this tasting and do an exemplary job of keeping our SantaFe and LosAlamos wine groups exposed/supplied w/ Navarro wines. Ted Bennett & Deborah Cahn couldn't have better (unpaid) spokespeople for their wines in the world!!