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The Tom Hill Archives

The Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium presents the musings and reflections of Tom Hill. We think it's great that Tom, who has sampled so many wines, has shared his tasting notes with us. We do have, or have had for sale a few of the wines Tom writes about, and we include a link to our stock page whenever it is a producer we carry (but since the stock page is kept up-to-date and the wines are sold, don't expect any but the newest of wines to show up in our stock!). Mostly though, since we specialize in County of Santa Barbara Wine and Central Coast Wine, we don't carry a lot of the wines Tom writes about. But we think it is important that you be able to have an idea what they're like in case you are planning to buy some somewhere, or have them in your own collection. Enjoy.

Here are Tom's notes from January 18, 1999:

Spanish Wine

Tasted some Spanish wines last night. This was a SantaFe tasting organized by Howard & Rhoda Sherry. Howard provided the wines, the knowledge, and the expertise. Rhoda, as usual, provided the charm, the good looks, and the personality.
  1. Pesquera Tinto Crianza (Tempranillo) '95: Dark color; strong Am.oaked bit dusty/smokey slightly low fruit nose; soft fairly lush dusty/earthy some blackcurranty strong vanilla/Am.oaked flavor; long dusty some blackcurranty bit hard/tannic Am.oaked finish w/ fair tannins; needs 2-6 yrs; lots of dusty character & bit closed.
  2. Pesquera Reserva Especial (tempranillo) '94: Very dark color; deep intense cedary/smokey/Am.oaked ripe blackcurranty fruit nose; hard/tannic intense Am.oaked/vanilla/cedary ripe blackcurranty Cab-like some dusty flavor; very long Am.oaked/cedary/vanilla tannic ripe blackcurranty Cab-like fruit finish w/ ample tannins; needs 5-10 yrs.
  3. Pesquera Janus Gran Reserva '91: Dark color; very strong Am.oaked/vanilla/ bourbon very intense fruit/blackcurranty complex rather dusty/old vines nose; very lush mouthfilling ripe blackcurranty strong vanilla/bourbon/ Am.oaked layered complex flavor; very long lingering concentrated ripe blackcurranty very bourbon/vanilla/Am.oaked finish w/ ample tannins; needs 5-15 yrs.
  4. Pesquera Janus Reserva '94: Very dark color; very intense cedary/pencilly/ vanilla/Am.oaked very intense fruit/blackcurranty rather dusty complex nose; hard/tannic very rich/intense/blackcurranty very strong vanilla/Am.oak/ cedary rather dusty/old vines flavor; very long intense blackcurranty fruit strong vanilla/bourbon/Am.oaked hard/tannic finish; needs 5-15 yrs.
  5. Condado de Haza Tinto Finca Y Vinedos (Tempranillo) '95: Very dark color; very intense layered Cab-like/blackcurranty/blackberry some vanilla/oak nose; rich ripe lush some hard/dusty ripe blackcurranty some vanilla/oak flavor; long hard/tannic ripe blackcurranty some vanilla/cedary/oak finish w/ fair tannins; needs 4-8 yrs; very good price at $22.00
  6. Condado de Haza Tinto Alenza '95: Black color; intense smokey/vanilla/toasty/ some charred/pungent rather closed light ripe blackcurranty nose; huge rich ripe blackcurranty some closed strong pungent/smokey/charred/oak flavor; very long lingering bit closed ripe blackcurranty strong pungent/charred/ toasty/oak finish w/ ample tannins; needs 5-15 yrs.
  7. Torre Muga Reserva (Tempranillo) '94: Very dark color; strong blackberry/ blueberry dusty/licorice/pungent very pencilly/toasty/cedary/oak nose; rich intense fruit blackberry/blueberry very dusty/old vines intense menthol/toasty/pungent/oaked flavor; very long lingering rather dusty/old vines strong blackberry/blueberry menthol/toasty/pungent rather licorice finish w/ ample tannins; best Rioja I've ever had.
  8. Palacio Finca Dofi (60% Garnacha, 5% Carignena, 35% CabSauvignon/Syrah/ Merlot) '95: Very dark color; intense licorice/blackberry/boysenberry/ Grenache meaty/complex/dusty some vanilla/oaked nose; very rich very intense Grenache/blackberry/boysenberry/licorice light vanilla/oaked flavor; very long lingering very intense blackberry/Grenache/boysenberry some earthy/ dusty rather tannic finish; loads & loads of complex Grenache fruit; needs 5-20 yrs.
  9. Palacio L'Ermita (80% Garnacha, 20% CabSauvignon) '95: Black inky color; very intense blackberry/black cherry cola/boysenberry/licorice/pungent chocolaty complex/dusty some menthol/vanilla/oak slight volatile/aromatic nose; very rich intense mouthfilling licorice/chocolaty/blackberry/black cherry cola dusty/complex old vines tannic some menthol/toasty/pungent oaked flavor; very long lingering layered intense black cherry cola/black- berry very intense Grenache/licorice/chocolaty complex/dusty/old vines some vanilla/toasty/pungent/oaked finish w/ ample tannins; needs 5-20 yrs; incredible Grenache.
And a brief bloody pulpit:
  1. Howard & Rhoda fashioned this tasting to demonstrate to the non-believers the quality revolution that has taken place in Spanish winemaking & grape growing over the last few yrs. They accomplished this in spades; an incredible set of definitly world-class wines; one of the best tastings our SantaFe group has ever had. Too bad the wines are so scarce and so expensive.
  2. Tempranillo: These wines shatter any doubts about Tempranillo being anything but a first-class noble grape variety; something they ought to be persuing in California, clearly. I don't quite yet have a handle on what Tempranillo is supposed to be. It has a lot of blackcurranty Cabernet-like character w/o  the herbal overtones that Cab often has; with a lot of the earthy/ dusty character you find in Bordeaux; but less of the bass notes & more hight-toned notes a bit like Carignane. But world-class grape it is.
  3. Grenache: I've sung the praises (as has John Alban) of Grenache and its world-class status before, but will harp on it again. These two Grenaches are about the best Grenaches I've ever had; better than any Rayas that I've had; certainly better than the pitiful '96 Rayas. Some of the Aussie Grenaches have been close, but a bit heavy-handed on the oak. But I must say that the Alban and the Andrew Murray Grenaches are awfully close... and at a fraction of the prices. We need more quality Grenache in Calif.
  4. Oak: All of the Tempranillos has a strong definite oak component to them. But in none of the cases did I feel the oak treatment was out-of-control or overbearing as in many of the Aussie wines. All of these had ample fruit to support all the oak. They reminded me a lot of Ridge MonteBello in that sense... lots of noticible oak but not a floozy-like identifiable American oak character that Zins often have.
  5. These wines were all huge intense extracted very young wines. I found my vocabulary woefully inadequate to describe what I was tastng in these wines. The notes all sound very much alike, but the wines were all very distinctive. How well will they age??? I have little doubt these will be magnificant wines down the road. Yet I found a certain weirdness in all of these wines, a slight out-of-balance character that suggested to me perhaps an over-enthusiastic use of saignee to increase to concentration and extraction; something I couldn't quite put my finger on.
  6. Guess it wasn't so brief after all. Sorry about that.
TomHill (all pumped up for Ridges tonight)

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