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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 31, 2003:

Taos: Larry & Laura's Dinner

After the Grand Tasting at the Taos Winter Wine Festival, we adjourned to Larry & Laura Archibald's cabin there in the Valley for our own WineMaker dinner. In addition to Michael & Barbara Ogg, joining us was: John Olney/Ridge winemaker at the LyttonSprings facility, Stewart Goodfellow/Dir. of Sales Reps at Bacchus-WinePatrol distributors, Mike & Debbie Payne of my wine group, and Harry/the Ogg's big BlackLab. Laura primarily did the meal, which was stunning as usual, and Larry took care of the wines:
 
  1. Zind-Humbrecht Pinot d'Alsace 1994: Very fragrant/perfumed/flowery almost R-like nose; soft/rich very floral/R-like flavor w/ an underlying steeliness; very unlike most Alsatian PB and more like R; no signs of an emminent demise.
  2. Ridge Geyserville (85% TrentadueRanch/15% AngeliRanch; 14.4%) 1981: Med.light color; rather strong bretty/horsecollar/barnyardy some alcoholic no fruit some complex nose; tart earthy some sharp/metallic rather bretty/horsecollar some cedary/pencilly/oak flavor; too much brett and on its last legs.
  3. Pfeffingen Ungsteiner Herrenberg Scheurebe Spatlese 2001: Lovely fragrant/perfumed floral slight metallic/steely/Mosel valve oil nose; off dry very minerally/steely yet lush floral R-like flavor; lovely Scheurebe that should age for many yrs.
  4. Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon (100% CS; 12.7%) 1976: Med.color; strong cedary/smokey/ complex/cigar box fragrant nose; tart bit lean/dried out complex/cedary/cigar box/pencilly rather spicy/earthy slight funky flavor; drying out a bit and lost most of its fruit but a classic/lovely oldBordeaux-like Cab.
  5. Landmark Grand Detour Sonoma Mtn Van der Kamp Vineyard Pinot Noir 2000: Attractive smokey/pungent/ toasty some black cherry/Pinot Noir bit Burgundian nose; soft/round some earthy/Burgundian rather pungent/toasty/oak flavor; pleasant Burgundian Pinot, but just that.
  6. Ridge Monte Bello (12.5%) 1995: Very dark color; beautiful complex/smokey/earthy/pungent some blackcurranty/chocolaty/Cab nose; big/rich bit menthol rather smokey/pungent/toasty earthy/blackcurranty Cab flavor w/ fair tannins; showing some complexity but still needs  more age.
  7. Chateau Pichon-Lalande 1995: Dark color; big/ripe chocolaty/blackcurranty some cedary/toasty some earthy/herbal/Bdx nose; rich/hard blackcurranty/chocolaty toasty/charred herbal/earthy flavor w/ fair tannins; rather ripe Bdx that needs more age; terrific Bdx.
  8. Ridge Calif Late Harvest Zin Lytton Springs Vineyard (16.0%; SaH: 36.0%; RS: 8.0%) 1992: Med.dark color; rather ripe/blackberry/Zin jammy/late harvesty some earthy nose; very sweet very ripe/ jammy/blackberry slightly hot slight Kansas feed store flavor; very ripe & jammy but still plenty of blackberry fruit.
  9. Ridge Calif Zin Essence Dusi Ranch (13.9%; SaH: 39%; RS: 9.2%) 1991: Med.dark color; very jammy/blackberry/raisened/pruney/boysenberry bit volatile nose; very sweet very overripe/ blackberry/jammy/pruney bit hot/volatile flavor; much more overripe/pruney character that is starting to show thru.

And a wee Bloody Pulpit:
  1. Ridge Geyserville '81: This was when the Ridge wines were at their nadir. The had developed  a bad brett infection in the (MonteBello) wnry that was raging throughout their wines from about 1979 up until 1983. Paul then figured out the problem, made a wholesale replacement of their oak cooperage, got the brett under control, and with the 1984 vintage, the problem was behind them. But in that era, I was so dissatisfied w/ the brett/funky character of their wines that I quit buying them. This '81 was a cellar remnant from that era and has clearly not stood the test of time.
  2. John Olney: John is the Ridge winemaker at the Lytton Springs facility. I've never had much opportunity to visit w/ John, so it was indeed a treat for him to join us. His wife, English, was along w/ John to pour at the Grand tasting. When I first saw her, I knew she looked  awfully familar. Turn out she used to wait on me at Kermit Lynch's shop in Berkeley back when she worked there a number of yrs and recalled me from that context. 
TomHill 
 

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