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.

 

Petite Sirahs and Mourvedres
Tasted last week some Petite Sirahs and Mourvedres:
Rosenblum Cellars Napa Valley Kenefick Ranch PS (14.8%) '96: Dark color, strong buttery/ oaked/pencilly classic Rosenblum/lush berry/Zin-like nose; soft lush grapey/Zin- like some buttery/oaked/pencilly flavor; med.long soft Rosenblum/lush buttery/ pencilly oaked berry/grapey finish w/ light tannins; a bright fruity red more like Zin than PS, classic Rosenblum lush.
Rosenblum Cellars Napa Valley PalisadesVnyd PS (13.5%) '90: Very dark color; bit bretty rather pungent/smokey/licorice oaked some complex nose; tart some bretty/horsecollar pungent/toasty/oaked smokey/peppery/dusty flavor; long tannic/pungent/licorice some toasty/oaked bretty finish; still needs some 3-6 yrs; a big pungent PS.
Ridge Calif PS YorkCreek (86%PS, 14% Zin; 13.9%) '90: Med.dark color; strong licorice/ pungent/smokey/oakrd some spicy/complex earthy/dusty nose; rich big pungent/licorice/ tannic some smokey/oaked earthy flavor; long pungent/smokey/licorice oaked peppery spicy finish; still on the clunky side & needs age.
Hartley Ostini SantaBarbara Cnty Carrari Vnyd PS (13.2%) '96: Very dark color; very intense some blackberry very spicy some pencilly/oaked bit herbal bit volatile aromatic nose; soft rather herbal/chile pepper some pencilly/toasty/oak rather bretty/ barnyardy flavor; med.long toasty/pencilly/oaked some herbal/pungent aromatic fairly tannic finish; lots of oak; a rather interesting/eccentric PS.
JC Cellars St.George Vnyd Napa Vlly PS (14.1%) '97: Inky black color; very strong licorice/ pungent/smokey rather toasty/Fr.oaked/menthol fairly complex nose; big intense tannic strong buttery/toasty/Fr.oaked rather licorice/pungent/spicy bit hot flavor; long toasty/Fr.oaked ripe licorice/black cherry finish; a big huge oaky PS that needs much age; one of the best young PSs I have in some time.
Byrd-Cooper Contra Costa Mourvedre (14.9%) '97: Med.dark color; strong plummy/earthy black cherry some toasty/oaked nose; soft fat very plummy/fruity/blackberry/bing cherry rather toasty/Fr.oaked flavor; med.long soft/fat plummy/bing cherry some toasty/oaked finish w/ light tannins; needs yr or two; lots of dark fruit for Mourvedre.
Terre Rouge Amador Cnty Mourvedre (14.5%) '96: Med.color; rather licorice/plummy/dusty bit volatile/aromatic some oaked bit Amador/briary nose; soft plummy/black cherry spicy bit earthy/briary flavor; long ripe plummy/black cherry spicy some briary finish w/ light tannins; nicely done Mourvedre w/ a touch of Amador briar.
Terre Rouge Amador Cnty Mourvedre (14.5) '97: Med.dark color; rather fragrant/cherry/ black cherry spicy some Amador/briary nose; very ripe cherry/black cherry bit overripe briary/AmadorCnty bit stemmy/hard flavor; long very ripe plummy/cherry/black cherry rather briary finish w/ light tannins; more Amador-like than the '96.
Veritas Wnry Barossa Valley Mourvedre/Grenache (70% mourvedre, 30% Grenache; 14%) '97- Very dark color; strong pungent/plummy/dusty/earthy/licorice very peppery/black pepper complex some oaked nose; soft very peppery/black pepper/plummy/earthy light oaked flavor; med.long soft peppery/black pepper some oaked/pungent finish w/ some tannins; very interesting/unusual red w/ little Grenache character.
Taja Jumilla Monastrell (Mourvedre; 13%) '90: Med.dark color; rather pungent/earthy mushroomy bit unclean/goat pen/musty nose; tart bit tannic earthy little fruit some unclean/musty flavor; med.short tart bit thin earthy/dusty unclean/musty finish w/ some tannins; unthrilling & unclean.
Ch de Pibarnon Bandol (12.8%) '95: Very dark color; rather strong very peppery/spicy earthy/dusty some complex nose; tart big dusty/old vine/earthy very peppery/spicy deep flavor; long rich peppery/spicy dusty/earthy flavors w/ fair tannins; needs some 2-5 yrs yet; lots of terrior & peppery character.
Domaine Tempier Bandol '95: Dark color; very earthy/dusty rather funky/bretty bit black cherry nose; hard unclean bretty/funky tannic closed flavor; med.long very dusty/earthy unclean/bretty/funky hard tannic finish; needs much age; little fruit and mostly terrior.
Domaine Tempier Bandol Cuvee Speciale '95: Dark color; earthy/peppery/spicy slight bretty some bing cherry dusty nose; hard/tannic bit closed some peppery/bing cherry slight bretty flavor; long tannic/hard some bing/black/cherry spicy/peppery slight bretty/funky finish; huge wine that needs age.

And a bit of a bloody pulpit:
This was a tasting I did for the SantaFe group. I've long been struck between the similarity between Calif PetiteSirah and Mourvedre. They both tend to have not a lot of fruit and are often on the sort of clunky/clumsey/coarse side. They both have often seemed to be varieties that are more suitable for blending w/ other varieties than on their own. They both often seem to be on the fat/flat/underacid side. Most of the early Mourvedre came from Cline grapes down in ContraCosta, which tend to be pretty underacid. As more Mourvedre is planted in Calif in cooler climes, perhaps it may show that it can make world-class wine on its own. Certainly the Andrew Murray is a right step in that direction. But I remain unconvinced.
Two more very good Bill Easton/TerreRouge wines. These are the first Amador Mourvedres that I've had and liked them quite a lot. They showed to me a lot less of that Amador/briary character than the Amador Syrahs tend to show. It'll be interesting to see how Mourvedre evolves in AmadorCnty. Across the board, I've been pretty impressed with Bill Easton's last two vintages of Rhone wines. A wnry to watch.