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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 for sale, 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 July, 1997: 

Raisin' Rhones Trip Report July 14-21 

I signed up for the Viognier Guild's Raisin' Rhones Festival in Paso Robles on July 19, so decided to go out a few days early and visit some old friends & meet some new ones. Joining me on this trip at various stages were Larry Archibald & Laura Chancellor of Santa Fe (frequent groupies in my various entourages); Dave Jones, an InterNet tasting friend  from Vail & his co-vivant, Claudia Lampner of SanFrancisco; Margaux Singleton, formerly of my Santa Fe & Los Alamos tasting groups, and Fred Schraeder, of Calistoga; and Steve Bosquit, well-known highly-regarded heretic-at-large. 

The Raisin' Rhones Festival was an extraordinary event, one of the two best tasting events (the other being the Wine Cask Futures tasting) I've attended this year. Mat Garretson had done an extremely good job organizing the event, many of the best Rhone(Calif) producers were there, and the quality of the wines, Viogniers, Syrahs, and all the others,  was uniformly high. It's an event I plan to make an annual part of my  tours, assuming it's success doesn't degrade the quality of the Festival. I highly recommend this Festival to one and all.... especially those caught in the Cabernet/Chardonnay rut. 
 
  Monday, July 14,19987

Into work about 2:00am to squeeze in one last bit of Great Science before an early morning drive to Albuquerque for a 1:00pm flight. Get to airport pretty early, which was fortunate because a Delta/Atlanta flight had been canceled & utter chaos reigned at their counter. Get my epee blade on my carry-on w/ the usual scam of telling the security people it's a platinum deep-space probe gamma ray interferometer transponder antenna!! Strange that they never question that something made to withstand the fury of a rocket launch and the rigors of deep space wouldn't withstand the baggage handling. Or maybe they know enough about that harsh environment (baggage handling systems) that it's entirely plausible! 

Catch a lotta ZZZZ's thru SLC and into Oakland, exactly what plane rides are made for.  Grab my rental car, eschew my customary trip up the freeway to Rosenblum, and head over to Pleasanton. Meet up w/ a good former Los Alamos friend, Rose O'Brien, who's saved my life 5-6 times, by getting me in the habit of always wearing my biking helmet (are you listening Fred???). We do a nice mountain bike ride up Pleasanton Ridge; spectacular views, a modest 800' elevation gain. Good workout before dinner at Prima up in Walnut Creek. 

Prima has always been one of my favorite restaurants in the Bay area, with an extraordinarily good wine list. The man in charge of wine, Joel Butler, and I go waaay back to his LiquorMart days in Boulder (early '70's). Once again, they did not disappoint: 

  • Vegetable Minestrone 
  • Lobster & Rock Crab Lasagnette in light tomatoe sauce 
  • Smoked Chicken & Ricotta Gnocci in Asiago Cheese Sauce 
  • Apple Gallette (Honey Coated) w/ Vanilla/Honey Ice Cream 
The two whites were served blind. Amazing, but I couldn't tell the Clendenan one: 
 
  • Cloninger Monterey Chardonnay '95: big ripe tropical fruit/pineapply light Monterey celery/Chard strong toasty oaked nose; soft lush pineapply/celery Chard very toasty/Fr.oaked flavor; big soft lush & ripe Chard 
  • Primadonna Santa Barbara County Chardonnay '96 (made by AuBonClimat): Lean spicy smokey pungent Fr.oaked light floral Chard nose; tart lean pungent smokey oaked light floral flavor; lean tart spicy very well made Chard 
and the two reds served blind were a no-brainer: 
  • Z Zin Massoni Vineyard Amador Cnty (made by Jeff Runquist) '95: simple pleasant light raspberry nose; soft light simple raspberry light spicy/earthy flavor w/ little Amador character; pretty  much like his Montevina Zins of old. 
  • Thackery Plieades NV (Rhone blend): fairly strong pungent/dusty some toasty oaked nose; fairly rich some blackberry/plummy rather dusty/pungent flavor w/ light tannins; very nicely done interesting drinkable mostly Petite Sirah. 
Tuesday, July 15, 1997 

Sleep in till 7:00 am, up the street to shoot a few hoops, then head out towards the Napa Valley. The early appt w/ Bill Knuttle of Tria doesn't work out, so on up the Silverado Trail to Rasmussen. The Silverado Trail has 3 sets of addresses in the 1000's & Kent's is in the northern-most bunch. Eventually Larry figures it out & finally Dave & Claudia too. Margaux gives up & never finds us. 
     I have been a fan of Kent Rasmussen's wines from the very start. His Chards & Pinots have been very good from the very start. They no longer have the "Rasmussen stench" that I learned to know & love, but I still like them anyway. 
     Kent's a very interesting guy... short w/ this bushy beard & overalls that makes him look very much like a leprecaun. You can just see him out sitting under a toadstool, smoking a little pipe w/ some of that funny-smelling tobacco in it. 
     As I'm waiting, get to meet Kent's wife, Celia Ramsay, and his two youngsters, Callie and Webster. So pull out my sword & show the kids a few moves... they are impressed. Turns out Celia used to fence foil & hopefully I talked her into picking up the blade to commit a little bloodshed & mayhem on the strip once again. 
     Ken & Celia bought the old Napa Creek Wnry over a yr ago. It used to be an old slaughter house (pigs & cattle) and has very strange architecture for a winery. But they've been doing a lot of renovations so that it's now pretty functional. 
     We go into the storage area & pull a bunch of bottles I've not seen before. Kent makes Pinot & Chard under the Rasmussen label from his vnyds down in lower Carneros. Then he buys a lot of other grapes from various sources that he bottles under the  C. Ramsay label. But the wines are hardly  "second label" wines. So we take a few bottles out to the picnic area under the trees and work our way thru them: 

  • Ramsay Sangiovese Reserve Napa Valley '94: The grapes come from the John Caldwell vnyd and are one of the "Samsonite clones" (i.e. brought back in a suitcase from Italy) of  Sangiovese. The more common ones are the Atlas Peak and the Robert Pepi clones. Fragrant black cherry spicy light oaked nose; tart acid astringent black cherry cough syrup hard lean some spicy flavor. Nice nose, but on the palate..... like sticking your tongue in a vise and torquing that sucker down!! 
  • Ramsay Napa Valley Early Burgundy (Abouriou) '95: A rather obscure grape of uncertain origins from a 60 yr old vnyd. Very dark color; deep dusty earthy slight volatile rather grapey rustic nose; rich deep dusty earthy Alicante-like soft fat cough syrup grapey flavor; a very interesting wine actually. 
  • Ramsay Calif Aglianaco Sierra Foothills/Sutter Creek '95: A very late ripener from a vnyd w/ a lot of interesting varieties. Med. color; dusty earthy quite spicy floral perfumed nose; very acid (3.4 pH) earthy hard somewhat floral flavor; sorta like an aromatic Barbera; interesting wine. 
  • Ramsay Napa Valley Refosco/Mondeuse Biale Vineyard '93: A variety found both in Italy and the foothills of the Alps in France. Med.color; rather strong oaked chocolaty dusty earthy nose; soft ripe chocolaty chocolate/cherry (Cherry Mash) dusty flavor w/  light tannins; an interesting very tasty drinkable red. 
  • Ramsay Contra Costa/Sonoma (Valley of the Moon) Calif Mourvedre '95: Med. dark color; deep plummy chocolaty bit earthy Mourvedre nose; rich mouthfilling chocolaty/ plummy/earthy/dusty flavor w/ some tannins; good acidity for Contra Costa Mourvedre; really tasty red. 
  • Ramsay Napa Valley Petite Sirah Leeds Vineyard '94: Very dark color; deep peppery aromatic fairly spicy some oaked nose; soft spicy very peppery flavor; quite aromatic and lively for PS. 
  • Ramsay Napa Valley Syrah Reserve (from two different vnyds) '94: Med. color; fragrant raspberry/blackberry oaked dusty Pepto Bismal/chalky nose; bit tannic blackberry/ strawberry dusty some oaked flavor w/ some tannins; much like the Phelps Syrah and not particularly extracted. 
Head on up the road and finally meet up w/ Margaux & Fred for lunch at All-Seasons in Calistoga. One of my very favorite places for casual non-fussy bistro-style food. Said hello to the owner, Alex Deirkhising, whom I had met some 22 yrs before when he ran the Freemark Abbey WineGarden wine shop. Alex failed to recall the encounter!! All-Season also has a very nice good retail shop attached to it w/ lots of things you normally can't find elsewhere. Takes me 6min 14.7sec to put together a case to be shipped to me back to NM. The lunch was a Summer Vegetable/Diced Tomatoe & Mushroom Risotto on English Peas w/ Aged Jack Cheese; quite tasty & hit the spot. The wine: 
  • Limmerick Lane Furmint/Lindenleaf Cuvee Blanc et Blanc Collins Vineyard '95: made from the Hungarian variety that goes into Tokaji. Med.gold color; simple grapey bit earthy nose; tart lean bit metallic simple grapey-steely flavor; a pleasant palate cleanser but just that; doesn't thrill. 
Fred is in the process of moving his antique/art business from Florida to Calistoga, so take a quick tour of his new digs... where utter chao reigns. Lots of neat stuff there... sorta like when I was allowed to explore my Great Aunty Peg's attic. It'll  be a great place to visit when everything is unpacked & out. 
     Head back down Hwy 29 towards St.Helena for our visit to Folie a Deux. This is a winery (label has what looks like two dancing nymphs on it but is actually a Rorshach pattern that the founding folks, two psychologists, dredged up) that had pretty much vanished from sight, that was resurected from bankruptcy by a group led by Dr. Dick Peterson. A yr & a half ago, they brought in Scott Harvey from Amador Cnty's Renwood to help turn the place around; and that, indeed he's been doing. From a pretty dismal facility, Scott's been implementating lots of renovations. Definitely a winery to keep one's eye on. Reviews on his recent wines have been quite good. 
     Scott & I go way back to his early days at Santino Wnry (later Renwood) where he made some terrific Zins (and Barberas and Syrahs). I recall those days the utter  disdain he had for Chard & Cabernet wines. Scott's finding that those can be pretty interesting wines to work with after all. We take a quick tour of his home there on the property and the winery itself. Looks a bit like a hillbilly farmstead in the Ozark backwoods, except for the stainless steel tanks. They have a beautiful cave carved into the hillside below the winery, so we head down there to taste from the  barrel: 
  • Folie a Deux D'Agostini Amador Zin (made by Joel Gott) '96: Deep dusty classic Amador blackberry nose; tart acid hard dusty/blackberry flavor 
  • Folie a Deux D'Agostini Amador Zin (blended w/ some of Scott's-made same Zin) '96: Same classic blackberry light oaked nose; much softer & rounder on the palate; a  nice-drinking mainstream Amador Zin. 
  • Folie a Deux (Vino Noceto) Amador Sangiovese '96: Very pencilly/oaked light spicy cherry nose; soft ripe black cherry bit dusty pencilly flavor; another very nice Vino Noceto Sangiovese. 
  • Folie a Deux Estate Cabernet '96: Rather strong herbal meaty Cab nose; fairly rich herbal/dusty Cab flavor; a good main pretty straightforward Napa Cab. 
  • Folie a Deux Screaming Eagle Vineyard Cabernet '96: Very intense herbal/blackcurranty light  pencilly/oaked nose; big rich lush herbal/blackcurranty flavor w/ fair tannins; a pretty big rich Napa Cab 
  • Folie a Deux Freemark Abbey vnyd Cabernet '96: Much leaner harded w/ less fruit and lots of dusty/earthy character. 
  • Folie a Deux diStefano Vineyard Amador Syrah '96: Deep blackberry Syrah bit pungent smokey toasty nose; fairly rich dusty Syrah/blackberry flavor w/ some tannins; not as big & ripe as some Scott made at Renwood; more restrained then previous. 

    • And then up to the tasting room: 
     

  • Folie a Deux Estate Reserve Chardonnay '96: Lush toasty yeasty pencilly oaked ripe melony Chard; tart lean spicy/melony yeasty/pencilly flavor; lots of interesting leesy character. 
  • Folie a Deux Amador Orange Muscat '96: Light fragrant orangy/floral light muscatty nose; soft light orangy/muscatty flavor; a nice summertime quaff. 
  • Folie a Deux Estate (+other vnyds) Chardonnay '95: low key pleasant melony Chard nose; tart melony Chard bit simple flavor; pleasant simple Chard 
  • Folie a Deux regular (Laurie Woods vnyd) Cabernet '95: Some Zin blended into this wine. Rather dusty/earthy bit smokey nose; soft dusty oaked light blackcurranty flavor; not strongly Cabernet but pretty tasty. 
  • Folie a Deux Reserve Cabernet '95: Strong herbal dusty bit blackcurranty Cab nose; rich dusty herbal oaked some blackcurranty flavor w/ light tannins; much more Cab character and a bit more oak. 
This has been a learning experience for Scott, having made almost exclusively Amador wines all his life, as he deals with other varieties & another area. My expectation is that the Folie a Deux wines will continue a steady improvement in quality. He will be picking up more Amador vnyds for his line and will be taking half the crop of Zin off the old GrandPere Vineyard in the future. Also an Argentine Cabernet is in the works. A place to watch. 
     Margaux & Scott exchange cigars & we go our separate ways. I'm staying with good friends Dick Blazer & Betsey Strebe so head on over to their home in the forest above the Silverado Trail. Dick & Betsey were former members of my tasting group in Los Alamos & then Dick went to UC/Davis to get into the winemaker business. After a stint at  Vichom bM (before Mondavi), Dick became experimental eonoligist at Sterling, before quitting (bailing out?) amidst all the recent turmoil at that place. Betsey went to work for Sutter Home, where she's been learning what REAL Zin is all about! 
     After catching up on each other's lives, we head out to dinner at Pinot Blanc in St.Helena. Joining us are Larry Archibald (again) and Ray & Nancy Coursen, owners of Elyse Vineyards, maker of some awfully good Napa Valley Zins. The meal is extremely good: 
  • Cold Gazpacho Soup 
  • Ricotta Cheese Gnocchi w/ Braised Veal Cheeks & Sauteed Artichokes & Deep Fried Parsley... didn't venture the obvious question: which set of cheeks on the calf did they come from?? 
  • Chocolate Ending: Chocolate Crunch Cake w/ Coffee Creme Anglais & Hazelnut Brittle 
And the wines: 
  • Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs '92: nice slight yeasty elegant sparkler 
  • D'Agneau Silex Pouilly Fume '95: intense herbaceous SB/stoney nose; hard acid herbaceous SB/steely/stoney rather rich flavor; not all that exciting for a big $$$ wine but will probably age for 10-20 yrs easily. 
  • Elyse Nero Misto (50% PS, 25% Zin, 25% mixed reds) '91: Wow! Intense peppery PS complex earthy pungent nose; soft lush beautiful peppery/complex/dusty pungent flavor; really developing into a terrific PS. 
  • Elyse Howell Mountain Zinfandel '93: WowWow. Intense pungent blackberry deep complex some HM dusty/earthy nose; rich lush complex pungent/oaked licorice/blackberry flavor w/ fair tannins; still needs several yrs; lots of blackberry fruit for a HM Zin. 
And then back to the Blazers for a nightcap of: 
  • SutterHome Triple Cream NV: a cream sherry base wine w/ various flavors & spices added. Med.light brown color; rich grapey very aromatic slight orangy/nutmeg very spicy nose; fairly sweet very spicy/nutmeg/cloves flavor. Although their widely praised Calif White Zin has all the critics in a dither (a fearful sight indeed), this is probably the best wine that SutterHome makes. 
and then off to bed for some ZZZZ's.  

Wednesday, July 16, 1997 

Up at a normal time and head over to Santa Rosa. The appt w/ Rod Bergland at Joseph Swan fell thru, so take a casual drive. Stop at Pearson & Co for a double espresso. This is a small gourmet carry-out way out on Fourth St that just  opened a few months ago & owned by the parents of a friend from Escalera in Santa Fe. A small operation, the food looks very good. Then on downtown in Santa Rosa to Traversos. A large grocery store, mostly Italian, w/ a very good wine shop. Like great bookstores, you can tell you're in someplace special just from  the smell when you walk in the front door. 
     Then on up Hwy 101 to Healdsburg. Stop at Root & Eastwood wine shop and quickly find a mixed case of stuff I can't live without. Paul Root, looking as harrassed & harried as usual, interrupts his sweeping of the floor for a bit of his characteristic rapid-fire, stacatto conservation. Then on out to Dry Creek Vineyards for a lunch date w/ Don Wallace. Margaux & Fred, then Larry, join me at this point. 
     Dave Stare, Dry Creek Vineyards, & I go back to the very start in the early '70's. His first wine, a '72 Gamay Beaujolais was an absolutely delicious quaff. The Dry Creek wines have been remarkable consistent over the 25 yrs. The Cabernets are done in a more elegant, polished, svelte style and never seem to get the recognition they deserve. And they age quite well, thank you. Two long time friends at Dry Creek Valley, Jean Martin & Mary Jo Chism, come out to say hello. And in the tasting room, we have: 

  • Dry Creek Valley Reserve Fume '95: Lovely melony some leesy/oaked slight herbal nose; lush soft melony/oaked flavor; big lush wine in a Chard style. 
  • Dry Creek Valley Zin Old Vines '94: Med.light color; bright Zinberry spicy nose; tart spicy Zinberry buttery oaked flavor; nice but on light side. 
  • Dry Creek Valley Zin Reserve '94: Med.light color; much stronger raspberry/Zinberry/some blackberry bit pencilly oaked flavor; fairly rich lush very spicy blackberry/ raspberry/Zinberry some toasty oaked complex flavor; much better than the  '93 Reserve Zin which was a bit of a clunker. 
and them some special stuff: 
  • Dry Creek Valley Zin Reserve '91: Beautiful lush blackberry/floral/chocolaty some buttery/ oaked nose; soft big lush complex rich ripe blackberry/oaked very spicy flavor; a beautiful complex Zin that's really developing nicely, probably Dave Stare's best Zin ever. 
  • Dry Creek Valley Zin Old Vines '95: Big rich buttery ripe Zinberry/blackberry nose; soft lush ripe blackberry/Zinberry bit oaked flavor; much bigger & richer than '94. 
  • Dry Creek Valley Zin Reserve '95: Rich cranberry/raspberry/blackberry very spicy aromatic nose; rich ripe lush blackberry/raspberry some toasty/oaked flavor; even bigger & richer than the '94; maybe close to the '91 in quality. 
  • Dry Creek Valley Merlot Reserve '95: Deep ripe fruity some cherry bit oaked nose; ripe Merlot fruit some toasty oaked flavor; well-structured for a Merlot. 
  • Dry Creek Valley Merlot Reserve '91: More herbal/chocolaty loads of fruit & some oaked nose; strong herbal Merlot bit chocolaty very spicy slight toasty oaked flavor; a tasty Merlot that's developing very nicely. 
Don manages to get us a table at Bistro Ralph, so we head on back into Healdsburg. For lunch, I have a delicious Calzone w/ Diced Tomatoes, Pancetta, and Asiago Cheese. Everybody else's dishes are equally good. The lunch wine: 
  • Rafanelli Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel '95: Deep raspberry dusty old vines some oaked nose; soft rich lush intense raspberry/blackberry/dusty some oaked flavor; seems not as big & rich as previous & certainly much cleaner & less bretty than they were 4-5 yrs ago. Pretty good, fairly mainstream Zin. 
During lunch, Larry Levin, winemaker, and Duff Bevil, vnyd manager, both at Dry Creek Vineyards come in & chat w/ us a bit. At the next table is a large group from Gallo, including one of Ernest or Julio's grandaughters, w/ a bunch of unmarked sample bottles. And then comes this biker pair, fresh off their Harleys, he with slicked down hair, very European looking, who looked awfully familiar, receiving a lot of deferential attention from everybody. Margaux has to prompt me that that is (the famous) Michael Mondavi. At Santa Fe Wine&Chile Festival, he greeted me, after a side-long glance at my nametag, with this great big friendly "Hi, Tom" as if he'd known me for yrs. Now, w/o my nametag, of course doesn't recognize me from Adam! 
     Back to the winery & then on up the road for our visit w/ David Caffaro. Don Wallace used to buy Zin grapes from David a number of yrs ago for Dry Creek Valley, so elects to go along with us to renew an old friendship. 
     I got into the David's wines, on the recommendation of Paul Root, at the very start, before he was known at all. His various Zins and other old-vine blends have always been very very good; done in a very racy/polished/fairly extracted style. He has this unique program of selling futures on his wines before the vines have even flowered, in March of each yr. So we saunter out into the vnyd so's I can inspect my '97 futures whilst they're still just little squirts on the vine. The crop looks of normal size and very good in quality (according to Dave... I wouldn't have a clue myself!). As we're in the vnyd, long-time friend Doug Nalle, out inspecting his blocks of grapes in Dave's  vnyd, comes up to visit awhile. He, too, is very pleased by this yr's Zin crop. We get caught up on where and what all our various kids are doing. 
     We then head into the very utilitarian winery to taste some of Dave's  wines. His '96's had just been bottled the week before, so they all seem very closed down and supressed in the nose. But the flavors all seem a bit bigger and richer than the '94's. So, FWIW, my notes on his '96's: 
  • Caffaro Petite Sirah '96: Closed light peppery/dusty nose; tight spicy peppery PS dusty fairly rich flavor w/ good structure. 
  • Caffaro Carignane '96: Dusty rustic bit grapey pretty closed nose; big ripe black cherry almost floral flavor; one of the better Carignanes I've had. 
  • Caffaro Cabernet Sauvignon '96: Deep slight blackcurranty slight oaked nose; buttery soft light blackcurranty light oaked flavor; more in a Zin style of Cab 
  • Caffaro Zinfandel '96: Bright spicy Zinberry/blackberry deep some oaked nose; deep blackberry light oaked bit licorice/oaked flavor; the most forward & attractive of the '96's. 
  • Caffaro Estate Cuvee '96: Fairly aromatic/perfumed spicy/dusty nose; fairly big rich spicy/licorice/pungent oaked flavor; interesting big wine. 

    • and then from the cellar: 
     

  • Caffaro Zinfandel '95: Deep blackberry spicy ripe lush some oaked nose; soft rich ripe blackberry/licorice/dusty some oaked flavor; seems much bigger & riper than I had it last Winter. 
  • Caffaro Cabernet Sauvignon '94: Ripe blackberry/chocolaty/ bit blackcurranty nose; soft blackberry/licorice/blackcurranty ripe almost Zin-like flavor 
  • Caffaro Cabernet Sauvignon '95: Deeper spicier ripe blackberry bit pungent nose; much bigger/riper blackberry/blackcurranty flavor; again Zin-like 
  • Caffaro Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc '94: 10.4% r.s. Beautiful lush figgy ripe grapey/butteryscotchy nose; soft lush very figgy/grapey flavor w/ no raisened character; no botrytis but lots of lush ripe grapey character. 
David had just installed this big stereo system in the winery and knew that Larry was w/ Stereophile magazine, so they start talking shop and Larry tinkers w/ the adjustments on the system. Somehow Wagner reverberating off the barrels here seems appropriate. 
     We bid adieu to Margot & Fred for this trip and Larry & I return to Dry Creek Vineyards. Dave Stare hasn't returned from his travel yet, so we cross the road & taste at Pezzi-King: 
  • Pezzi-King Chardonnay '95: Fragrant spicy/melony light leesy/oaked nose; clean spicy/ leesy oaked melony/Chard flavor; pleasant simple elegant Chard. 
  • Pezzi-King Fume Blanc '96: Light mostly herbaceous simple nose; tart light delicate herbal SB flavor; pleasant but just that. 
  • Pezzi-King Cabernet Sauvignon '94: Strong herbal/CS rather dusty nose; light straightforward  fairly herbal CS flavor; pleasant straightforward Cab, bit simple 
The Pezzi-King wines were a bit on the simple and light side. Their '95 Zin has gotten a lot of good notice but I thought it, too, a bit simple. 
     Larry heads on down to The Cite for our dinner tonight. I drive down  the road a ways & into the DryCreek vnyds to stop at Don Wallace's home. His wife is Kim Stare-Wallace, whom I first saw hanging out at Dave's Dry Creek Vineyards  when she was just a grade-school kid. Now she's Vice Pres/Marketing at Dry Creek Valley. They are expecting their second child momentarily, so is hanging pretty close to home. We visit awhile & I check out a bunch of the new photos of their daughter Taylor. A real sweetie of a kid. 
     Head on down towards The Cite for dinner that night at Claudia's apartment in the Marina District. Traffic is horible on Hwy 101 from way out beyond  the San Rafael Bridge cut-off all the way across the GoldenGate. Check into the Chelsea Motor Inn down on Lombard St, just 4 blocks away from Claudia's. Nice motel, easy parking, surprisingly quiet, and right across the street  from the PlumpJack retail shop. 
     Stroll over to Claudia's for dinner. Dave has been doing a lot of chefing at a very good restaurant in Vail, so really knows what he's doing. Based on the first course, Claudia's obviously no slouch either. Joining us is Larry and Laura, just off the bus (inside Santa Fe joke... she had just flown in that morning). Also making a cameo appearance is Rachel, Larry's daughter, who lives here in The Cite. The meal: 
  • Garlic Bruschetta w/ White Truffle Oil, Fresh Chevre, & Fresh Thyme 
  • Sauteed Cajun Spiced Shrimp w/ Green Sauce of Cilantro Oil, Garlic, Shallots, & Spices 
  • Roasted Chicken w/ Achiote Rub; Grilled Polenta, Roasted Leeks,and a Roasted Red Pepper & Tomatoe coarse puree 
  • Orange/White Chocolate Souffle w/ Bailey's/Creme Anglais (killer dessert) 
and the wines: 
  • Le Grande Dame Champagne '89: light yeasty/delicate fragrant nose; tart  clean yeasty elegant delicate spicy flavor; a whitsle-clean very elegant rather yeasty bit smokey Champagne; beautiful stiff 
  • Schoffit Cuvee Caroline Pinot Blanc/Auxerois '95: Steely bit valve oil stoney nose; soft very floral fragrant lush bit steely/stoney flavor; fairly classic PinotBlanc nose but rather soft & ZindHumbrcht-like on the palate. 
  • Wynn's Coonawarra Syrah Michael '94: Deep very intense milky/Am.oak bit blackcurranty nose; soft very fat very milky/Am.oaked very lush  blackberry flavor; highly extracted & loaded w/ Am.oak but a bit too fat & porky on the palate. 
  • Ridge Pagani Ranch Late Picked (15.8%) Zinfandel '92: Dark color; intense licorice dill/Am.oaked pungent/smokey blackberry/dusty nose; soft intense milky/ Am.oaked chocolaty/licorice pungent bit hot flavor; still a big intense deep dark Zin not showing much development. 
  • David Caffaro Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon '95 (leftovers): Lovely lush aromatic blackberry/Zin-like nose; soft ripe dill/Am.oak licorice/blackberry/ Zin-like flavor; a very nice-drinking lush Cab more like a big Zin 
  • Rasmussen Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc '93: Ripe figgy/grapey slight botrytis/peachy nose; soft ripe figgy lush intense grapey light peachy flavor; a very good lush ripe figgy dessert wine; a steal at around $12.00/hlf in NM. 
  • Mt. Horrocks Watervale Region Cordon Cut Riesling '96: Very intense floral very spicy Riesling nose; tart clean very spicy/floral very intense Riesling flavor; no botrytis obvious; a vibrant floral very spicy Riesling. 
  • Yalumba Barossa/Griffith Botrytis Semillon/SB Family Reserve '76: Very intense peachy/botrytis/apricotty peneapply nose; soft lush very intense botrytis/ peachy/apricotty flavor; very sweet & not showing much development but loads of botrytis. 
  • Ca'Togni NV Sweet Red Wine '93: (black muscat) Light red slight browning color; very strong muscatty slight herbal/stemmy/Kansas feed store nose; soft light muscatty rich slightly sweet dusty/earthy flavor; a pretty rich big sweet red wine that I liked quite a bit. 
A truly grand & wonderful evening. Walk the 4-5 blocks back to my motel in a bit of a fog. 

Thursday, July 17, 1997 

Up early and walk the two blocks to the Funston Playgrnd for some fencing drills. Get a few smart-aleck comments from street denizens about my sword. Probably if I'd been wearing a leather garter belt & high heels and carrying whips & chains, I wouldn't have drawn a second glance!! The 20 minutes of drills do much to aleviate the fog in the head. 
     Head on down I-280 towards the Santa Cruz Mountains for the day's visits. Lead off was Thunder Mountain. I had met Milan Maximovich on the InterNet, mostly on Brad Harrington's West Coast Wine Discussion Group. Milan offers up a lot of informed comment on many aspects of wines, particularly things in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but keeps his ownership of Thunder Mountain Winery pretty much in the background. Since I knew zip about Thunder Mountain, I was particularly interested in seeing what he was doing. 
     Milan makes his wines at ByingtonWnry, high atop BearCreekRd, just above  David Bruce by a mile or so. A spectacularly beautiful wnry whose equiptment Milan uses to make his wines. Milan meets us (Larry & Laura have now joined  me) with his wife Sue, so we adjorn to the picnic benches outside on a spectacularly beautiful morning. He is a retired (from Lockeed) polymer chemist and started Thunder Mountain in '95. Although he's done a Dusi Ranch Zin, he is clearly very passionate about Santa Cruz Mountain wines. He makes Chard from the BaldMountain Vineyard; Cabernet & Chard from the Beaurgard Ranch, Pinot & Chard from the Matteson Ranch, Cabernet Sauvignong, CabFranc, & Merlot from the Bates Ranch, and, starting this yr, grapes from the Miller Vineyard down near Hollister. So we adjourn to the barrel room to taste: 

  • Thunder Mountain Chard Matteson Vineyard '96: from the vnyd south of Santa Cruz at a 1500' elevation, clearly mtn grown; made w/ a natural yeast fermentation; very lush ripe melony some leesy/toasty oaked nose; lush good acidity ripe melony Chard light pencilly spicy bit leesy flavor; a big rich ripe spicy Chard. 
  • Thunder Mountain Bald Mountain Vineyard Chardonnay '96: from a vnyd near BonnyDoon; lush melony dusty bit rustic/earthy very spicy nose; hard tart earty classic Santa Cruz Mountain Chard bit chalky/minerally but big & ripe flavor; a Chard that really shows the SCM terrior; will probably age for quite a while; a bit like some of the Ridge Monte Bello Chards of old but much more richness. 
  • Thunder Mountain Bates Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon (100%) '96: Very dark color; intense herbal some chocolaty/smokey/pungent almost menthol nose; strong dusty bit herbal/ Cab somewhat smokey/pungent/toasty oaked flavor; a big tannic classic Santa Cruz Mountain Cab w/ lots of dusty Santa Cruz Mountain character. 
  • Thunder Mountain Bates Ranch Star Ruby (40% CabFranc, 40% Cabernet Sauvignong, 20% Merlot) '96: Dark color, bit less herbaceous & more fruity/licorice ripe nose; rich softer licorice/pungent some pencilly/toasty oaked light herbaceous/dusty flavor; very long pungent/licorice some toasty finish, a bit softer than the  Cabernet Sauvignon but still a big ageable wine. 
Milan was a bit reluctant to show us the next wine & apologized for its condition: 
  • Thunder Mountain Matteson Vineyard (14% alc) Pinot Noir '96: Med.light color; fragrant very spicy very aromatic/perfumed pencilly/toasty oaked dusty nose; pungent/ funky toasty/pencilly slight herbal/chile/cherry dusty flavor; Pinot can be a very changeable & erratic wine, this had some funky character but I really loved this Pinot & thought it resembled a lot some of the early Ken Burnap (Santa CruzMountain Vineyards) Pinots. 
All-in-all, I was very favorably impressed w/ Milan's wines. The wines are priced around $30/btl & I'm always pretty leery of some new winery, right out of the gate, charging those kinds of prices (guess I feel a new wnry should pay their dues & give us a great deal on their first wines). But I don't think that price is out of line, nay compares very favorably, with the current market. I've been a big fan of Santa Cruz Mountain wines ever since I fell in love w/ my first Ridge & David Bruce wines. They have a dustiness & earthy & somewhat lean & hard character that I particularly like, but not mainstream Calif, & not a character that appeals to everyone. Every time I taste a bunch of Santa Cruz Mountain wines like this, I go into a self-flaggelation mode for not doing a better job of keeping on top of those wines. I have a lot of Ken Burnap's early wines & feel terribly embarrased that I haven't done a better job of following his recent efforts. 
     As we leave thru the tasting room, we try a few Byington wines: 
  • Byington Santa Cruz Mountain Pinot Noir '95: rather simple light oaked fruity nose; soft bit thin/funky somewhat tannic flavor; unexciting. 
  • Byington Santa Cruz Mountain Bates Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon '93: Med.dark color; rather herbal/dusty Cab nose; rough hot tannic bit bretty herbal/Cab flovor; underwhelming. 
We have some extra time, so we make a quick stop at the David Bruce tasting room: 
  • David Bruce Santa Cruz Mountain Chardonnay '93: Med.gold color; toasty/pencilly oaked bit appley Chard nose; soft toasty/pencilly lean spicy candied apple/Chard flavor; pleasant & interesting but not much depth & richness. 
  • David Bruce Russian River Valley Reserve Pinot Noir '94: toasty/pencilly spicy cherry bit dusty/RRV Pinot nose; spicy buttery/pencilly/toasty bit dusty Pinot flavor; nicely done elegant Pinot. 
  • David Bruce Santa Clara Cabernet Sauvignon '94: Strong herbal/chocolaty nose; rather soft herbal/Cab ripe flavor; pleasant Cab but lacks much structure. 
I first tried the David Bruce wines in the early '70's; Zins and Pinots & Chards from the '68/'69 vintages... and went off-scale (Los Alamos conehead-speak for someone well out on the wings of the bell-curve!) over them. They were very extracted, eccentric, sometimes flawed, extremely variable from bottle-to- bottle, always interesting wines. That continued thru most of the '70's. He made ('77 & '78) the two best (Alsatian-style) GWT's ever made in Calif. He made great Grenache when most of the Rhone Rangers were still in diapers! He then gave up this (as David calls it) "primitive" phase & became much more mainstream & I sorta lost interest in his wines. In the last few yrs, I've noted a modest resurgence in my interest in his wines. Unfortunately, his Estate vnyds, from which his best wines usually come, were badly infected by Pierce's disease, and have been ripped out & replanted. As they come on-line, I've been expecting to see much better David Bruce wines. Viola... I have not been disappointed... see comments on the '96 Estate Syrah down in Paso Robles. 
     It's been some 23 yrs since I'd been up there to visit David... having been to two pretty memorable tastings there in his home, out on the deck, around '74 & '75. So I get David to come down to the tasting room to say hello to an unidentified long-time friend. We both, of course, have not changed one iota in the intervening yrs!! :-) He quickly brings us up to date on all the new things at the wnry. He clearly hasn't lost his passion for making great Calif Pinot. I promise to do better on following his wines in the future. 
     Then it's a mad dash back up I-280 to Cupertino for our visit to Ridge. This is my 6'th visit to 17100 Monte Bello Rd. The previous 5 times, I've always got lost in Cupertino, usually ending up in that quarry there by missing the turnoff to Stevens Creek Reservoir. This time, finally, after 24 yrs, I get it right! A bit of a slow learner at times! 
     Larry & Laura are right behind me; & joining us are Dave & Claudia, plus Steve Bosquit, world- reknowned heretic. Check in at the lower wnry and are sent on up to the upper wnry, where we are met by Paul Draper. He goes into quite a bit of description of the Monte Bello property. Old stuff for me, since my first visit up there in '74 (when I joined a tour w/ Paul for this young chef from Berkeley, one Jeremiah Tower, and a few of his French friends), but new for the rest of my group. We then go into the wnry, where Paul runs us through much of his winemaking process (well... not literally!). The one thing that is really striking to me is that Paul is continuing to tinker, to modify, to adjust, to learn more on how to make his wines better. This (plus very good grapes) is what makes the Ridge wines so great. Paul points out many of the modifications he's made to the standard winemaking process, to make better wines. This is, truly, in management-speak, CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement). Only at Ridge, it isn't just slogans, jargon, CQI-focus teams, and all that other stuff seen in Dilbert cartoons. And probably noone at Ridge as even heard of CQI! 
     The second thing I find striking: Paul has been making wine at Ridge some 27 yrs. I first met him in '74. He still shows then very same passion and enthusiasm for what he's doing at Ridge has I noted way back then. That REALLY is rare in Calif winemaking circles. Most winemakers who have been at it that long have long ago lost interest in what they're doing. They're often just figure-heads that are trotted out to public events and trundled into the tasting room to glad-hand guests, then trundled out back for an afternoon snooze (we're NOT naming any names here, however!!). This definitely is NOT Paul Draper, he's still very much the hands-on winemaker at Ridge! Very much a low-kep sort of  guy; every time I visit w/ Paul I come away more and more impressed w/ his intelluct. This guy could have been a rocket scientist.... thankfully he chose what he did... the world & wine drinkers are much the better for it! 
     A few things I learn on the tour: They use a portion of whole berry fermentation in many of their wines, particularly York Creek Petite Sirah, to achieve softer tannins. Paul points out that this is very different from maceration carbonique because of the hole in the grape from the removed stem. A distinction I had never before understood. On the '95 vintage for Zinfandel (and perhaps the source of Parker's dumping on that vintage for Zins), when the first grapes started to come in, Paul noted that the grapes seemed to possess a lot of hard tannins, even though the grapes were physiologically ripe. So he held up on the harvest to give the grapes more hang- time, regardless of what the sugar levels were. Secondly, he did a lot of  modifications and adjustments to the winemaking process along the way in order to  achieve softer tannins in the final wine. And this, I think, is what, to my judgement, makes the '95 Ridge Zins so good. Wineries that make their wine by formula probably didn't fare as well. 
     Not unlike a Darrell Corti lecture, Paul had us all absolutely spell-bound talking about his winemaking and answering our questions. He has to really twist are arms to get on with tasting a few wines from the barrel: 
  • Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon '96 (final blend): Intense dusty bit earthy/licorice some pungent oaked classic MB Cab nose; big tannic hard dusty bit licorice/pungent earthy flavor; not quite as big as the '95 vintage. Another classic killer MB Cab. 
  • Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel '96: Strange bit funky ripe spicy raspberry nose; spicy bit funky & tannic raspberry flavor; seems lean for a LS Zin & more of that deep somewhat funky Geyserville character and less bright raspberry fruit than usual. 
  • Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel '96: Dusty old vines blackberry spicy menthol nose; big ripe deep blackberry bit funky/dusty  Geyserville flavor; the Geyserville always to me  has a very interesting bit funky character, probably from the other varieties therein; this is no exception. 
One interesting thing of note is that they will be releasing a '96 Viognier and a '96 Syrah, from a small plot on the Lytton Springs property. As a Calif/Rhone fan, that is very exciting news for me. Tiny quantities of both.
 
       So we head on back down to the lower winery for a tasting Paul has set up for us. As a special treat, he has pulled a few Zins from the early '70's, old and dear  friends to me, from the Ridge archives, plus a selection of the unreleased Zins and the upcoming ATP releases. I couldn't resist the opportunity to taste the Ridge Occidental Zinfandel '70, another great Zin in the mold of the great Sea Ridge Occidental Zinfandel '91 (inside joke here!). After the Occidental Late Harvest '70, of which I only tasted once, this was my all-time favorite Ridge Zin, the wine that really blew my sox off & made me fall head-over-heels in love with Zin. It was an inky, black, dusty, funky, cassis-like, extracted tannic Zin in its day; the ne plus ultra of that style in that era. The likes we just don't see these days in Zin, alas & alack. Then..... the wine did a malolactic in the bottle and I felt the wine was sorta gutted for awhile. I had my last bottle (about $6/btl) some 12 yrs ago. So anyway, we sit down and taste a few: 
  • Ridge Occidental Zinfandel '70 (12 1/2%): Dark color w/ a bit browning; intense smokey pungent tobaccoy cigar box complex old Cab nose; smooth tobaccoy cigar box cedary complex smokey pungent cedary spicy flavor; still alive and much like a great 30-40 yr old Cabernet. Marvelous stuff... I should age so well!! 
  • Ridge Jimsomare Zinfandel '95: Intense licorice dusty old vines milky/Am.oaked perfumed talc nose; lovely very spicy dusty old vines bit earthy some bright blackberry rather Am.oaked flavor w/ some tannins; really shows the dusty Santa Cruz Mountain character of Zin. 
  • Ridge Pagani Ranch Zin (15.2%) '95: Intense blackberry/cassis rather Am.oaked nose; big ripe blackberry/cassis very lush dusty old vines licorice/pungent flavor; rather tannic finish; certainly the biggest of the Ridge '95 Zins; so much better than the St.Francis, which is pretty overwhelmed by the milky/dill/Am.oak (and we won't even mention the Topolous!), in that so much more of the great Pagani fruit comes thru. Killer Zin. 
  • Ridge Geyserville (14.2%) '95: Beautiful high-toned blackberry/raspberry some pencilly/oaked bit dusty nose; really lush rich complex very spicy ripe blackberry dusty some minty/menthol oaked flavor; tastes sooo much better than it did at ZAP; seems bigger & richer than the '94; beautiful Zin. 
Paul & I were reminiscing about the old Coast Range Zins (and Coast Range Pinot Noir); a very nice great drinking (and cheap) Zin that Ridge used to make. I once hauled some 60 cases in a trailer for my group down from Liquor Mart in Boulder of the '73 CoastRange, at $3.99/btl I recall. So Paul goes back into the Ridge archives and pulls out the last Coast Range Ridge made: 
  • Ridge Coast Range Zinfandel '79: Med.light color w/ no browning; slight berry rather old Zin/tobaccoy nose; bit dried out slight barnyardy/horsecollar light berry flavor; getting a bit grey but still holding on by its fingernails. 
So finally about 5:00pm, Paul has to leave for a concert w/ Maureen. We retaste thru the wines and leave about 30 minutes later, first taking in the spectacular view from the hillock in front of the lower winery. I once brought a Los Alamos group here in '75, a cold & windy afternoon in November, and Dave Bennion tasted with us thru most of the Ridge '73 new releases. Despite the gloomy weather, it was a memorable tasting... Dave was quite a special guy. I remarked to him that I thought his Zins & Cabs were terrific, but the whites were not nearly as exciting. This was based on my tasting of young Monte Bello Chards and Monte Bello Rieslings and Vine Hill Rieslings. Dave took this as a personal affront (but, with incredible good nature) and started dragging out bottles from the archives, just to prove me wrong, including an old Ridge TBA Riesling. He was, of course,  totally right. The Monte Bello Chards were always very lean & hard in their youth, definitely not mainstream Calif Chard, tasting much like a white wine made by a red winery, but with some age they became very lovely fragrant aromatic complex Chards, still w/ a bit of a hard/chalky edge. 
     So we part company and go our own ways. By now (no breakfast or lunch, as usual) the hunger starts to build so I plan a meal in Santa Cruz afore heading to King City in the lower Salinas Valley. But the traffic going into Santa Cruz is sooo dreadful that I just want to avoid the place. Down towards Watsonville and Castroville, the eating looks awfully grim. So a fast computation indicates that I can just make it to McPhee's Grill in Templeton just befor their 9:00pm closing. So I haul -ss down thru the Salinas Valley, arriving at McPhee's at.... 9:03pm. They won't serve me (in all fairness, there was only a couple of tables occupied and the rowdiness level indicates they were about done). So I go a few doors down Main to A.J.Spurs, where the speciality is steaks and other stuff, in humongeous quantities. Definitely a restaurant for cowboys and linebackers! So I try the most intriguing item on the menu: 
  • Bar-B-Qued Sweetbreads: well..... the BBQ sauce was..... intense! and the wine: Some sorta beer, current vintage: lost my notes on this one! 
So head back up to Paso to find a motel and wind up at the Bates Motel across from the bowling alley.... and crash. 

Friday, July 18, 1997 

Up bright & early for a bike ride up into the Santa Lucia Mountains, then down the street to the schoolgrounds to shoot a few hoops. Stop for a double espresso then on out to Eberle Wnry for an early appt. Larry & Laura are dwaddling their way down  Hwy 1 this morning, so I'm on my own. Gary Eberle is a bit surprised to see me, Mat hadn't told him I'm here for the Rhone Festival. Lots of good friends, Sue & Kris, are here this morning. Things are hectic in preparation for the Festival & the evening parties. Head into the tasting room to try a few of the new things: 

  • Eberle Paso Robles Grenache '95: Fragrant attractive strawberry nose; tart lean spicy light strawberry Grenache flavor; a pleasant fragrant bit lean Grenache 
  • Eberle Paso Robles Nebbiolo Penultimate (Cuvee Frahlich Vineyard) '95: Light color; light cherry floral bit tarry Nebbiolo nose; tart lean astringent/tannic hard slight cherry/fruity flavor; nice nose but hurtey on the palate; actually this is a wine I would expect to be quite nice at 10-15 yrs. 
  • Eberle Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon '95: Lovely lush herbal/cinammon fragrant nose; some lush herbal/Cab rather tannic/hard flavor; this was just bottled the day before and was somewhat closed down. 
  • Eberle Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve '91: Beautiful aromatic spicy/floral cinnamon & cloves bit menthol/oaked nose; smooth perfumy/aromatic cinammon & cloves very spicy floral/menthol oaked flavor w/ a very long finish; polished & balanced but will age well. 
  • Eberle Paso Robles Barbera '95: Very spicy sausage/perfumed some oaked nose; tart bit astringent very spicy/spicy sausage oaked fragrant flavor; one of Calif's best Barberas made 
Gary brings in Bill Sheffer, his new winemaker, whom I'd not yet met, for introductions. Also joining us is Dennis Horton, owner of Horton Vineyards back in Virginia. He's made a Viognier that I was pretty impressed with. As I taste thru several of his wines that evening & the next day, I find that they are pretty interesting wines, sometimes very good. 
     So Bill, Dennis, & I head down into the caves to taste from the barrel: 
  • Eberle Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon '96: Fragrant oaked/cinammon/chocolaty very spicy light herbal nose; very spicy pencilly/toasty aromatic bit chocolaty/herbal/toffee flavor; I've always like the Eberle Cabs, but since they are (gasp!) different from Napa/Sonoma Cabs, they don't seem to get the recognition they deserve. 
  • Eberle Steinbeck Vineyard Zin (13.5%) '96: Pleasant fragrant straightforward raspberry/ Zin nose; tart bit lean simple raspberry/fragrant/spicy Zin flavor; nice pleasant bit on the simple side. 
  • Eberle Frahlich Vineyard Syrah '96: Dark color; deep spicy some blackberry/Syrah bit funky/smokey/licorice/toasty nose; rich tannic licorice/blackberry pungent flavor; another outstanding Frahlich Syrah 
  • Eberle Norman Vineyard Barbera '96: Very strong floral/dill aromatic spicy nose; tart lean hard meaty/spicy/dusty flavor; doesn't seem to have the lushness of the '95 but very fragrant/perfumed. 
  • Eberle Steinbeck Vineyard Barbera '96: Lighter spicy less deep/perfumed some oak nose; tart lean meaty bit funky flavor; a bit leaner & lighter & not the depth & richness of the Norman. 
  • Eberle Lauritson Vineyard Conuoise Rose '96: Very attractive floral/strawberry nose; light fragrant floral strawberry/candied lean flavor; very nice aromatic quite dry rose in the Provencal style. 
  • Eberle Sauret Vineyard Zin (new + older oak; 15%+ alc) '96: Bright jammy beautiful spicy fragrant raspberry/blackberry nose; beautiful lush blackberry/licorice raspberry dusty ligt toasty flavor; a bit more restrained than the '95 but of that same mold; a very well-made balanced Zin even at 15+%. Another killer Eberle Zin. 
I've been a big fan of Gary Eberle's wines from his early days at Estrella River  Vineyards (now the Meridian Vineyards) up the road. The wines seem to just keep going from strength to strength. 
     Visit a bit w/ Dennis Horton to find out what all he is doing back there in Virginia. He's working with a very large set of very interesting varieties.... trying to figure out what works best in that climate. Get to meet the new wnry poodle, Syrah. Not the rabid tennis ball-chaser as Chenay, but still a personality of her own. 
     The early afternoon appt w/ Toby at Tobin James is delayed for several hours, so head on down to Templeton & check into the Country House Inn B&B. It's a very nicely restored large old house that I've stayed in several times. The house kid, Skyler, about 3'rd grade, is a very neat personable youngster that's got lots to say. 
     Wines out there to taste, so waste no time heading out to a few tasting rooms. First stop is Dover Canyon Wnry. The winemaker here is Dan Pannico, formerly winemaker at Eberle. I had his Zin at ZAP in January & liked it a lot, so interested in seeing what else he's making. He has the old Jan-Kris vnyd property for his winery. and, surprise, run into Amy, formerly of the Eberle tasting room & source of all his dumb/blonde jokes. So taste through a few of these wines: 
  • Dover Canyon Pinot Blanc '95: Fragrant spicy light toasty oaked fairly fruity nose; soft attractive light toasty/oaked melony flavor; pleasant little white 
  • JanKris Pinot Blanc '94: Pleasant simple appley nose; soft appley light oaked flavor; getting a bit on the dull & tired side. 
  • Dover Canyon Marrouse (Marsanne/Rousanne blend) '96: Lovely fragrant aromatic almost muscat/perfumy nose; light appley perfumy/aromatic almost muscatty/Viognier flavor; fair body & richness; not obviously Rousanne or Marsanne but a very nicely made, interesting white. 
  • Dover Canyon Rousanne '96: Very attractive spicy aromatic some minerally/cinammon nose; ripe very minerally very spicy/perfumed aromatic flavor; almost like a Z-H GWT; a lovely Viognier look-alike. 
  • Dover Canyon Couger Ridge Vineyard (west of Justin) Chardonnay '96: Cinammon oaked spicy some tropical fruit/pineapply nose; attractive tropical fruit light spicy/cinammon/ oaked flavor; nicely done tropical fruity Chard 
  • JanKris Merlot '95: Rather herbal/Merlot fruity simple nose; soft simple dull Merlot fruity flavor; unexciting. 
Head up the road a bit to a place I'd not tried before; Grey Wolf Cellars: 
  • Grey Wolf Cab(75%)/Zinfandel '95: Pleasant fruity simple nose; soft buttery simple fruity flavor; underwhelmed 
  • Grey Wolf Merlot '95: Same story, verse two. 
  • Grey Wolf San Miguel Zin (16.1%) '95: Med.color; ripe jammy blackberry nose; soft very ripe jammy/blackberry bit light flavor; no overripe or late harvesty character; best of the lineup. 
  • Grey Wolf San Miguel Muscat '96: Fragrant clean simple muscatty nose; rather sweet simple muscatty soft flavor; needs a bit more acidity; simple stuff. 
Nothing very exciting here, so head back to Pesenti Wnry. Talk about going from bad to worse (or dull to the pits!): 
  • Pesenti Late Harvest Zinfandel '93 (25 deg Brix hrvst, 13.6% alc): Rather faded bit brown color; raisened pruney late hrvsty oxidized nose; rather hot tired washed out pruney oxidized flavor; dreadful 
  • Pesenti Blue Label Zinfandel '94 (25.6 deg Brix, 13.9% alc): same dreadful story. 
  • Pesenti Zin Port '96: Verse three, w/ overtones of Ever-Clear. 
  • Pesenti Muscatel NV: Old tired oxidized brown wine; more suitable for preserving Roswell aliens than consumption. 
What a crying shame this place is.... some great looking old vnyds and then the grapes are squandered by incompetent winemaking. 
     Time for one more stop so head over to Templeton and Wild Horse Vineyards. This wnry always amazes me in that they have a fairly large volume of production, but the quality remains consistently very high. Typically their wines are very good bargins, great restaurant wines. Plus Ken Volk makes a lot of interesting different things in small quantities that are only available at the winery. Has I drive down the long drive, I see Ken out in the vnyd, dropping part of their Viognier crop on the ground (bunch thinning), so stop to say hello. The choice of working out in a hot vnyd or joining me in the tasting room to pull out a few special things is a no-brainer, so he trails me up to the wnry. So from the standard offerings: 
  • Wild Horse Monterey Pinot Blanc '96: Attractive spicy/appley light oaked nose; tart  yet lush & rich very spicy cinammon/apple light toasty flavor; just a very nice drinking Pinot Blanc 
  • Wild Horse Malvasia Bianca '96: Fragrant fresh crisp Malvasia/slight muscat-like flowery nose; dry light delicate fragrant Malvasia very flowery flavor; I've always liked what Ken's done w/ Malvasia & this is another good one. 
  • Wild Horse Santa Barbara County Dry Orange Muscat WindWillow Vineyard (.3% r.s.) '96: Delicate elusive orangy blossom slight muscat/flowery nose; dry light delicate orange blossom flowery bit spicy flavor; just a very nice quaff. Wild Horse Central Coast Chardonnay '96: Fairly ripe melony/tropical fruit light toasty oak nose; soft spicy melony/tropical fruit light toasty flavor; nice mainstream Chard at a great price. 
  • Wild Horse Central Coast Arneis (13.7%) '95: Rather lean/stoney/earthy slight floral/ peach blossom nose; stoney/minerally clean dusty slight floral/pineapply flavor; not as lean & hard as the previous vintage. 
  • Wild Horse Old Vine Field Blend Cienega Valley '95: Palomino, Fr.Colombard, Trebbiano, plus others; Interesting fruity bit coarse/rustic nose; off-dry earthy/cheesy/ brie-like coarse fruity flavor; interesting white @ a good price. 
  • Wild Horse Paso Robles French Camp Vineyard Valdiguie (Napa Gamay) '96: Light color; bright fragrant cherry maceration carbonique very fruity bit dusty nose; tart fruity clean cherry spicy C-M dusty flavor; a great quaff, exactly what Beaujolais should be. 
  • Wild Horse Central Coast Dolcetto '94: Deep dusty grapey spicy nose; soft simple grapey bit earthy spicy flavor; doesn't have the astringent bite of most Dolcettos. 
  • Wild Horse Cienega Valley Trosseau '94: also known as Bastardo (like to see him get THAT  varietal name on the label!) or Cabernet Pfeffer; Light color; spicy dusty old vines wet concrete some grapey nose; tart spicy dusty old vines grapey flavor; a very interesting red. 
  • Wild Horse Cienega Valley Negrette '94: also known as Pinot St.George; Ripe lush blackberry grapey almost Zin-like nose; soft bit dilute blackberry/Zin-like some dusty/earthy old vines flavor; interesting sorta Pinot-like red. 
  • Wild Horse Paso Robles Zin (13.3%) '95: Strong dusty raspberry spicy light oaked nose; spicy dusty light raspberry/blackberry light pencilly/oaked flavor; more on the elegant side w/ lots of raspberry some like the old Estrella River Zins. 
  • Wild Horse Old Vine Cienega Valley Field Blend '94: Dusty old vines grapey/earthy spicy complex nose; dusty earthy grapey bit ponderous/coarse flavor; a pachyderm that galumps across the palate. 
and then Ken opens the Rhones he'll be showing the next day: 
  • Wild Horse Paso Robles Rousanne (14.3%) '96: Beautiful fragrant/aromatic Viognier-like peachy nose; big lush ripe very fragrant/floral spicy aromatic Viognier-like light peachy flavor; a beautiful fragrant wine better than most producer's Viogniers. 
  • Wild Horse Cienega Valley Grenache '95: Dusty earthy cinammon/oaked light fragrant  strawberry nose; soft dusty old vines grapey light strawberry complex flavor; some like an elegant Clos du Gilroy w/ structure; good drinking red 
  • Wild Horse Paso Robles Mataro/Mourvedre James Berry Vineyard '95: Dusty plummy earthy bit spicy/cloves nose; soft spicy/plummy/earthy dusty ripe flavor w/ some tannins; good plummy character but would like a bit more structure. 
Ken does an extremely good job of seeking out sources of interesting grapes from all the way up to Hollister clear down to Santa Barbara. The thing that I find  impressive of all these different wines is that Ken lets the varieties & the vnyds & the terrior speak for themself & doesn't try to bend the wine into what he thinks it should be (at least I don't think he does!). One of the more exciting and innovative, yet widely unheralded, winemakers in Calif, IMHO. 
     Head on up to Tobin James for my 3:00 pm appt but Toby doesn't make it back from  lunch yet, so go ahead & taste thru the wines available. Larry & Laura, lost because the itinerary was not properly maintained & totally bewildered and befuddled without  my guidance, finally catch up with me here. So we taste thru: 
  • Tobin James Paso Robles Viognier James Gang Reserve '96: Spicy aromatic very Viognier/ floral/peachy/ bit minerally nose; tart lean bit appley/spicy/light peachy flavor; very long lingering spicy light peachy/Viognier finish that goes on & on; a bit of a hole in the mid-palate but a nice rendition of Viognier; very good job for Toby's first effort. 
  • Tobin James Paso Robles Chardonnay '96: Light oaked delicate appely/spicy nose; ripe melony spicy light cinnamon/apple flavor; pleasant well-made Chard. 
  • Tobin James Monterey Cnty PinotNoir '95: Earthy clumsey bit chile/Pinot spicy fairly toasty/oaked/charred nose; bit herbal/chile/PN rather toasty/pencilly/ charred oak bit Burgundian flavor 
  • Tobin James Paso Robles Sangiovese '95: Light color; oaked/earthy little fruit weak cherry nose; tart astringent weak cherry flavor; a lean & mean little wine that exemplifies all that's wrong in Calif Sangiovese. 
  • Tobin James Deep Purple Zinfandel '95: Pleasant bit dried out light blackberry/jammy nose; simple blackberry/jammy/light slight oaked flavor; rather simple Zin 
  • Tobin James Paso Robles Syrah '95: Dusty some blackberry/Syrah light toasty/ oaked bir Rhonish nose; tart bit lean dusty/Rhonish bit funky/toasty flavor; a bit like a simple Cote du Rhone; would like more richness & extract 
  • Tobin James Paso Robles Cab Franc '95: Big fruity/dusty rather herbal nose; soft herbal/CabFranc dusty some oaked flavor; on the simple side. 
  • Paso Robles Cellars Zin (14.5%) '93: Dusty very ripe/jammy/PR blackberry bit overripe nose; bit thin very ripe jammy/blackberry somewhat hot & alcoholic flavor; pretty unthrilling. 
Toby is one of my favorite people in the Paso Robles area. The former winemaker at Eberle and Peachy Canyon, he's made some extraordinary Zins in the past; in the classic Paso Robles/jammy blackberry style. His recent James Gang Reserve Zinfandel '95 is a killer, maybe one of his best ones ever. And he makes some pretty amazing Late Harvest Zins, much like the Ridge Essences. He's been on his own almost two yrs now. The winemaking scam seems to be working for him; he's rebuilding the old big farmhouse next door to the winery and his vnyds there on the property will produce their first crop of Syrah this year. 
     Larry & Laura head back into town to hang out for a few hrs. I stop at the Paso Robles Vintners & Growers Association office in town to say hello to July Ackermann, their director. The PRV&GA is an amazing, well-run organization, mainly due to July. It is probably the best such promotional organization in all California. They put out a very nicely done brochure twice a yr. As you travel around the area, there are signposts directing you to all the wineries. And they'll have their WebPage up soon, which July is very excited about. 
     Head on back to the Country House Inn. Head down to the Templeton Middle School for nearly an hour of hoops & fencing drills.... in a blazing hot sun. Then shower & clean up and head out to Eberly Wnry for the evenings festivities. 
     Mike Stepanovich is a wine columnist (and editor) for the Bakersfield newspaper; used to live in Paso & has followed Gary Eberle's wines nearly as long as I have.  His daughter, Mikala, used to live here in Los Alamos & went to Middle School w/ my daughter & they used to pal around a lot. So when he came to Los Alamos to ski, we'd meet on the ski hill for lunch & snort down an interesting bottle or two.  Mike also writes for several nationally distrbuted wine magazines & is regarded as an expert on the Central Coast wines. So, in celebration of Mike's 50'th birthday, Gary & Jeannie throw a party Friday night & invite many of Mike's friends from around the state & many of the winemakers, both locally and in town for the Festival. Classic SantaMaria Tri-Tip BarBQ is the evening's fare there on the lawn of the winery. However, we (Larry & Laura, again religiously following the  itinerary, have joind me) have a dinner reservation w/ friends @ Ian McFee's Grill in Templeton, so we pass on the food. Many of the guests bring a bottle or two (or three or four!) to share, so the temptation for me to play the wine-weenie & take notes is irresistible: 
  • Hart Temecula Syrah '95: Light color; weird fragrant non-Syrah nose; light bit spicy earthy/herbal peculiar flavor; pretty strange stuff, no Syrah character. 
  • Fiddlehead Cellars Willamette Valley Pinot Noir '94: Spicy light toasty/pungent oaked light Oregan/cherry PN nose; light delicate very pencilly/toasty/charred oak light spicy PN flavor; light but very Burgundian Pinot. 
  • Archery Summit Oregon PinotNoir '94: Very fragrant aromatic toasty/pencilly ripe black cherry PN nose; light spicy toasty/pencilly black cherry flavor; more Oregon Pinot than the Fiddlehead but also very Burgundian 
  • Christom Willamette Valley Oregon Pinot Noir '93: Fragrant toasty oaked lovely lush black cherry Oregon Pinot nose; rich very spicy lush black cherry Pinot bit dusty/herbal pencilly flavor; a classic Oregon Pinot w/ some yrs to go. 
  • Cline Contra Costa Mourvedre '93: Deep musky/plummy/mushroomy/ dusty old vines some oaked nose; soft fat plummy fat mushroomy/earthy/dusty flavor; interesting plummy wine but lacks structure. 
  • Shafer Hillside Select Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon '84 (en magnum): Strong herbal/dusty CS rather pungent/toasty oaked nose; soft smooth dusty/herbal hillside Cab some pungent/oaked flavor; really developing nicely & a ways to go yet. 
  • Wild Horse Chardonnay '92: Very fragrant spicy tropical fruit/bit pineapply rather pencilly oaked nose; soft very smooth very fragrant pineapply/ripe melon smokey/pencilly oaked flavor; developing very nice & still very much alive. 
  • Ch.Routas Pyramus '96 (Bob Lindquist's second French white made; from Ugni Blanc, Clairette, Rolle or Vermentino): Light bit stoney/grapey slight floral nose; tart simple grapey/spicy flavor; more Calif lushness than previous ones. 
Finally I break out of the oeno-weenie mode & enjoy the wines and the people. Lots of good friends here. Writer Dan Berger, whom I haven't seen since his San Diego days on the Calif Grapevine panel was there. Then a very familiar large guy showed up with Jim Clendenan, but I couldn't place his name. When he spoke, then came the light; it was Bob Lindquist...... sans beard for the first time I'd ever seen him. He took a fair amount of ribbing that night over his new look. John & Barbara MacReady, long time friends from Sierra Vista in ElDorado Cnty, and their daughter, Michelle, now the winemaker heir-apparent there. Lee & Shirley Sobon of Shenandoah Vineyards/Sobon Estate. We apologize to Gary for leaving early before the food but apprise him that we have 3 more parties that night to attend, so beat a hasty exit & head back to Templeton & McPhee's Grill. 
     We meet up with a couple from Atascadero that Larry knows thru Stereophile for dinner. McPhee's is one of two very good restaurants in the Paso Robles (Laurent Grangien's Bistro the other one). I had eaten there twice before and really liked the food. The meal: 
  • Cream of Golden Squash Soup w/ Fresh Basil Chiffonade 
  • Red Ale Marinated Top Sirloin w/ Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Sauteed Fresh Vegetables 
  • BitterSweet Chocolate Pate w/ Grand Marnier Creme Anglais. 
and the wines: 
  • Eberle Paso Robles Viognier '96: Strong fragrant/smokey/sausage/pungent some peachy/ aromatic nose; soft lush pungent/smokey/some oaked light peachy flavor; tasting a lot like a ZindHumbrechy Pinot Gris tonight. 
  • Ernest Burn Clos St. Imer Cuvee de la Chapelle GWT Goldert Grand Cru (14.5%): Beautiful complex smokey very spicy/cloves/very aromatic bit musky nose; off-dry very rich/lush mouthfilling smokey intense spicy/cloves flavor; a huge Vendage Tardive/Z-H-style GWT; a stunning wine 
  • Mt.Eden Vineyards Old Vine Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon '91: Black color; very intense ripe chocolaty pungent toasty slight herbal/CS nose; big rich tannic mouthfilling dusty/chocolatypungent/smokey oaked flavor; a huge ripe Santa Cruz Mountain Cab that needs much age. 
We pretty much close down the place & go outside. The cowboys are still going strong a few doors down at A.J. Spurs; but my suggestion for finishing off the evening w/ a round of BarBQued Sweetbreads is promptly nixed. So back to the Country House Inn in a bit of a fog. 

Saturday, July 19, 1997 

Up early for short bike ride but it's pretty much a waste.... too flat around Templeton and much too much oxygen at this altitude for a decent workout. Have a few cups of coffee at The Country House Inn and, by coincidence,  run into two  ladies from SanDiego that are also up here for the Festival. Then head on up to the med-State Fairgrounds in Paso, the venue for the day's events. 
     The Viognier Guild was started some 6-7 yrs ago by Mat Garretson when he was down in Atlanta to promote a varietal that he had developed a very special passion for. Initially, it was primarily a chance for producers to get together and try each other's Viogniers when there was only a handful on the market. Although they still are the  Viognier Guild, the annual meetings have been expanding in scope to include all Rhone- style of wines; not just Calif but France & other states & Australia. 
     This,  the 5'th Annual Raisin' Rhones Celebration, was the first one I have attended,  but the quality of the event is so high that I'll probably become a regular. Previous Festivals have been held at other wineries (McDowell and Kunde Estate) but the festival had grown enough that holding it at a winery was no longer feasible. Because of Mat's  position at Eberle Wnry, it's permanent venue will now be in Paso Robles. And Eberle Wnry will be the host wnry. Since Gary probably deserves more credit than anyone in Calif for getting Syrah off the ground, that seems appropriate. 
     Pick up my nametag & registration packet and head into this big warehouse bldg for the morning's seminars. And run into more long-time friends & winemakers: Joel Butler from Prima, Adam Tolmach of Ojai, Brad Harrington, Dennis Schaeffer, wine  columnist in SantaBarbara, Scott Clemmons, another wine writer, Andrew and Kristen Murray, Dan Gehrs of Zaca Mesa, Dan Pannico of Dover Cnyn, Jim Clendennan of Au Bon Climat, John Alban & Joe of Alban Vineyards, Gordon Binz of Renwood.. 
     Larry & Laura, toeing once again the itinerary line, arrive late from their stay over  in Cambria. Dave & Claudia are coming down from Monterey so don't arrive until later  into the seminar. 
     After introductions by Gary Eberle & Mat, the seminars are started off by a round- table discussion of wine retailers & restauranteurs on promoting Rhone varietals. The moderator, Bob Cranston, in his revivial preacher guise, made for a very  intertaining presentation. I'm not quite sure for what audience this roundtable was directed (wine retailers & restauranters, I guess), but it didn't, I thought, have a whole lot in it for us consumers, or for the winemakers. 
     The second event was extremely interesting; a talk by Bob Lindquist on the trials and tribulations of a Calif Rhone producer making wine also in the Rhone (Chateau Routas, actually in the Coteaux de Varois). Since both harvests occur at nearly the same time, it makes for a rather busy crush season for Bob. The talk was accompanied by a rose, two whites, and two reds from Qupe & Routas. Tasting notes are folded into those below. The really special treat was a barrel sample of the Qupe Hillside Select  '96; another stunner!! 
     We then adjourned to the outside shaded area w/ picnic tables for lunch, prepared by Laurent Grangien of Bistro Grangien. There were 3-4 bottles a various wines stacked atop each table. Given the choice of eating lunch or tasting some new Rhones..... I head straight for the picnic tables & go to work. Notes folded into those below also. The lunch looked extremely good & everyone I talked to raved about the food. 
     After a few entertaining skits by Mat & crew, we're ready for the Grand Tasting back in the big building. This was a really special event & the real raison d'etre for this  trip, to try a whole bunch of new Rhones. And it was a quality event. There was ample room to taste the wines at a reasonable pace, most of the really good producers were there, not just a bunch of marketing dweebs (Sorry, Mat!), and you could visit w/ all the winemakers. 
     So, w/ my wine glass & little red spitoon, I set off on a grueling pace that was probably unmatched by anyone there. Managed to do nearly 60 wines, w/ notes, in two & a half hours. It was clear that a lot of people hadn't trained properly for this event; at the one hour mark there was already a crowd of slackers sitting down to rest on the sidelines! My focus here was to try many of the new Rhones I'd not tried before, and revisit a few that I knew to be outstanding. Consequently, the notes below do not contain many wines from some really outstanding producers... Eberle, Wild Horse, Dover Canyon. The notes are in alphabetically order: 

  • Adelaida Cellars Viognier '96: Intense very toasty oaked smokey pungent little fruit nose; soft very fat loads of toasty smokey charred oak; an unusual style but the Viognier is totally clobbered by the toasty oak. 
  • Adelaida Cellars Syrah '96: Dusty stemmy earthy bit yeasty/fresh fermented/leesy nose; hard tannic astringent unpleasant wet dog fur flavor; not good Syrah. 
  • Alban Vineyards Central Coast Viognier '96: Bit closed light peachy nose; soft rich spicy bit peachy flavor; nice Viognier. Lunchtime tasting. 
  • Alban Vineyards Central Coast Viognier (again) '96: Slight volatile light toasty/oaked strong peachy/Viognier nose; lush soft ripe very spicy peachy/Viognier flavor; a very nicely done Viognier 
  • Alban Vineyards Estate Viognier '96: Light toasty oaked more intense fragrant peachy/ Viognier nose; harder rich spicy peachy/Viognier some minerally flavor; big and rich but more structured than most & good Condrieu character. 
  • Alban Vineyards Estate Rousanne '96: Light oaked very flowery/floral aromatic very spicy nose; big rich lush floral very spicy perfumed flavor; seemed the best of the Rousannes here. 
  • Alban Vineyards Estate Granache '95: Strong smokey/oaked blackberry raspberry Rhonish nose; big ripe smokey/blackberry dusty Rhonish flavor; this is serious Grenache wine, probably best one made outside Ch.Rayas 
  • Alban Vineyards Reva Estate Syrah '95: Beautiful smokey roasted pungent Syrah nose; big rich smokey/roasted C-R-like pungent flavor w/ fair tannins; probably the most CoteRotie-like Syrah yet from Calif; needs some age; very good Syrah 
  • Andrew Murray Rousanne '96: Lean appley light oaked closed light floral nose; hard tight appley bit oaked spicy/cinammon flavor; seems hard & closed right now. 
  • Andrew Murray Viognier '96: Fragrant minerally/steely bit valve-oil nose; tart lean hard minerally light peachy/spicy/Viognier bit minerally/toasted oak flavor; hard & lean but lots of richness w/ some Condrieu character; very interesting. 
  • Andrew Murray Syrah '95: Intense blackberry earthy/dusty bit smokey/oaked nose; hard tannic dusty blackberry fruit light some smokey/toasted/oak flavor; a big hard tannic Syrah that needs age; even better than his '94. 
  • Andrew Murray Esperance '96: Very dark color; very strong floral/blackberries some toasty/oaked nose; rich lush blackberry/blueberry tannic flavor; a big hard rich tannic red that needs age; one of the best of the Rhone blends. 
  • Beaulieu Vineyards Solaris Grenache Rose: Simple fruity Grenache/strawberry nose; light near rose strawberry/candied flavor; simple to dull quaff. 
  • Beckmen Santa Ynez Valley Grenache '95: Some oaked blackberry bit wet dog fur nose; lean light spicy weak blackberry/oaked flavor; a big wine but not much flavor or nose there; seems closed. 
  • Beckmen Santa Ynez Valley Mourvedre '95: Med.color; deep plummy dusty Mourvedre earthy nose; soft big plummy dusty/Mourvedre rich earthy smokey/oaked flavor; pretty good Mourvedre w/ good structure. 
  • Beckmen Santa Ynez Valley Syrah '95: Deep dusty bit pungent Syrah/blackberry nose; soft fat unstructured dusty blackberry/Syrah flavor; short finish; some interesting  things therein but too soft & lacks structure. 
  • Ch. Routas Rose Rouviere (Cinsault/Grenache/Syrah/Tibauret) '96: Fragrant cranberry/cherry spicy nose; tart lean cranberry simple clean bit dusty flavor; a good quenching rose. 
  • Ch. Routas Coquelicot (60% Chard, 40% Viognier) '96: Fragrant spicy metallic/ earthy bit Windex-like nose; tart lean bit metallic/stoney bit thin flavor. Coquelicot is French for Poppy; Qupe is Indian dialect for Poppy. 
  • Ch. Routas Cyrano Syrah '96: Very dark color; very dusty earthy smokey little Syrah fruit nose; hard astringent dusty/earthy smokey flavor; hard to tell much, needs some age. 
  • Cline Carneros Marsanne '96: Light appley/earthy slightly coarse/grapey nose; soft fat lush light appley flavor; bit on the dull side. 
  • Cline Carneros Rousanne '96: Some oaked appley/Chard light cinammon/spice nose; soft fat lush smokey/oaked light appley flavor; big & soft & more like a Chard wanna-be. 
  • Cold Heaven Sanford & Benedict Vineyard Viognier '96: Very lush fragrant aromatic very spicy peachy/Viognier nose; big ripe lush peachy/Viognier almost GWT-like flavor; big ripe & lush but good acidity & structure; a big bombastic floozy-style of Viognier. 
  • David Bruce Estate Syrah '96: Wow!! Big Santa Cruz Mountain/dusty smokey/pencilly oaked some intense blackberry nose; big rich dusty/SCM pencilly/smokey oaked blackberry/blueberry flavor w/ ample tannins; a killer Syrah like a great Cornas from Columbo. First crop off his replanted Syrah. Only 2 barrels made, November release. Best David Bruce wine I've had in yrs; David's first Syrah & a stunner w/ lots of SCM character. 
  • Delas Condrieu '94: Strong minerally/floral slight plastic-like nose; soft fat very minerally/valve oil some floral Viognier flavor w/ a finish that goes on & on; a bit porky but a good Condrieu 
  • Delas Crozes-Hermitage '94: Big dusty rather roasted/Syrah smokey nose; rich hard dusty smokey roasted Syrah flavor w/ ample tannins; pretty big for a C-H. 
  • Guigal Condrieu '95: Beautiful fragrant floral ripe peachy/Viognier earthy minerally/Condrieu nose; beautiful floral minerally valve oil rather peachy/Viognier flavor;  a big ripe structured minerally Condrieu; this is the kind of complexity that Calif Viogniers don't often show. 
  • Guigal Cote-Rotie '93: Classic smokey/espresso/roasted C-R nose; lean bit thin very pungent C-R/roasted smokey flavor; classic C-R nose but rather thin on the palate. 
  • Eberle Steinbeck Vineyard Syrah '95: Fragrant aromatic floral cinammon/cloves some strawberry/Syrah nose; bright fragrant strawberry fruity/spicy Syrah flavor; more in the style of Gary's EstrellaRiver Syrahs; nice wine. 
  • Eberle Frahlich Vineyard Syrah '95: Deeper smokey cinammon&cloves spicy/oaked some blackberry/floral nose; fairly big spicy/cloves/oaked rich bit meaty/gamey flavor; very good very interesting Syrah. 
  • Fess Parker Santa Barbara Melange (Viognier&Marsanne) '96: Strong toasty/ smokey/oaked little fruit nose; soft fat pencilly/toasty/smokey oaked bit metallic/pineapply Riesling-like flavor; interesting wine but a bit heavy on the toasty oak. 
  • Fess Parker Santa Barbara Syrah '95: Bit wet dog fur strong toasty/oaked some shy blackberry nose; big ripe lush some tannic blackberry/Syrah some smokey/oaked flavor; big & rich and, for once, not overoaked. 
  • G.Graham Knight's Valley Viognier '96: Lush herbal peachy/Viognier very aromatic nose; rich bit herbal/minerally lush peachy/Viognier bit Condrieu-like flavor 
  • G.Graham Napa Valley Viognier '96: Intense lush peachy/Viognier light smokey nose; tart rich lush very peachy/Viognier some minerally flavor; a big & rich Vignier but good structure; much better than his '95 version. 
  • John Hawley Dry Creek Valley Viognier '96: Low key light peachy Viognier nose; soft bit oaked pleasant spicy peachy flavor; nicely done but just that. 
  • Iron Horse Alexander Valley Viognier '96: Classic clean peachy/Viognier nose; soft elegant peachy Viognier bit floral flavor; bit on the light elegant side but a pleasant Viognier. 
  • Kendall Jackson Viognier Grand Reserve '96: Lots of lush Viognier/fruity nose; soft fat attractive spicy/peachy/Viognier flavor; nicely done attractive Viognier but hardly "Grand" 
  • Kunde Estate Sonoma Valley Syrah '95: Rather bretty weak Rhone-like nose; soft bit washed out light Syrah fruit some bretty flavor; uninspiring Syrah from a wnry that usually makes very sound wines. 
  • McDowell Mendocino Syrah '95: Strong Am.oaked clunky slight licorice some simple fruity nose; rather spicy light strawberry some Am.oaked flavor; rather simple & dull Syrah. 
  • Ojai Bien Nacido Syrah '95: Intense dusty/blackberry Syrah light toasty/ oaked complex nose; big rich dusty blackberry/boysenberry some toasty/ smokey oaked complex flavor; mostly (or all) Hillside stuff in this; like it slightly better than the Hillside Select '95 today; THIS is what great Calif Syrah is all about; a killer wine. 
  • Ojai Roll Ranch Vineyard Late Harvest Viognier '96: Wow!!! Intense figgy very ripe lush fragrant aromatic little Viognier nose; very sweet tart very ripe figgy mouthfilling very spicy buttery/butterscotchy flavor; an absolutely stunning dessert wine but not obviously Viognier; great to taste this so I don't squander any of my bottles. 
  • Qupe Rousanne '96: Fragrant peachy/Viognier-like lighht oaked aromatic nose; rich ripe lush spicy peachy aromatic floral light oaked flavor; a lovely wine w/ a bit more spicy/zippy character than the '95; actually think this is a better Viognier than his Viognier is. 
  • Qupe Bien Nacido Cuvee (33% Viognier, 66% Chard) '96: Fragrant oaked/toasty Chard/melony like slight volatile nose; soft oaked lush smokey/toasty flavor; nice Chard w/ a high-toned character from the Viognier 
  • Qupe Bien Nacido HillsideSelect Syrah '96: Black color; intense blackberry smokey Syrah bit roasted/oaked nose; rich blackberry/cocoa smokey/oaked bit roasted/espresso dusty flavor; seems not quite as intense as the '94 and '95 but still a killer Syrah; a work still in progress. 
  • Qupe Bien Nacido Hillside Select Syrah '95: Deep intense blackberry dusty pungent bit roasted/smokey oaked nose; big ripe soft pungent blackberry/ Syrah dusty tobaccoy/toasty/smokey oaked flavor; stunning Syrah; this TOO  is what great Calif Syrah is about! 
  • Renwood Amador County Viognier '96: Pleasant bright peachy/Viognier nose; soft rich lush rather fat/alcoholic low-key peachy/Viognier heavy-bodied flavor; a bit on the big & alcoholic & clumsy side 
  • Renwood Amador County Syrah '95: Deep dusty blackberry Amador jammy/briary very ripe nose; soft lush very ripe alcoholic blackerry/jammy flavor; lots of Amador fruit but not much structure or tannins. 
  • Sierra Vista El Dorado Viognier '96: Some oaked appley light fragrant Viognier/ peacy spicy/nutmeg nose; rich lush ripe soft peachy/Viogner spicy flavor;      well made mainstream Viognier 
  • Sierra Vista ElDorado Syrah '95: Slight funky/bretty mushroomy/earthy slight blackberry nose; fairly rich dusty/earthy some blackberry bit funky/ unclean flavor; rather interesting CotesduRhone-like wine 
  • Sierra Vista RedRockRidge Syrah '95: Deep blackberry some dusty.oaked earthy/ mushroomy spicy/cloves nose; big ripe lush blackberry/Syrah spicy/cloves dusty flavor; lots of balckberry fruit w/ some of that funky ElDorado character; seems best SV Syrah yet; very good interesting Syrah 
  • Smith&Hook Arroyo Secco Viognier '96: Light fragrant peachy/Viognier nose; soft fat light peachy flavor; nice if a bit light Viognier. 
  • Sobon Estate Amador Viognier '96: Fragrant spicy elegant peachy/Viognier nose; soft rich lush attractive peachy/Viognier flavor; nicely done wine w/o the heavy/clumsy Amador Viognier character 
  • Sobon Estate Amador Rousanne '96: Fragrant bit herbal/SB-like spicy floral perfumed nose; soft spicy candied/apples apple pie cinammon/cloves floral flavor; very interesting & very well made aromatic white 
  • Sobon Estate Amador Syrah '95: Dark color; deep blackberry some dusty/smokey/ pungent nose; soft ripe dusty blackberry/Syrah briary some oaked flavor; seems like the biggest & best Sobon Syrah yet; great value at $12. 
  • Villa Helena Napa Valley Viognier '96: Very intense ripe peachy bit minerally/ stoney nose; tart spicy very floral/peachy Viognier glycerined bit steely/ minerally flavor; a huge Viognier but very well structured 
  • Zaca Mesa Santa Barbara Rousanne '96: Fragrant floral spicy bit leesy peachy/ floral nose; tart spicy floral light peachy/melony light toasty/oaked flavor; very nice delicate/elegant spicy eine 
  • Zaca Mesa Santa Barbara Viognier '96: Fragrant aromatic ripe peachy/Viognier light toasty/oaked nose; tart bit minerally/stoney delicate peachy/floral flavor; nicely done elegant style Viognier 
  • Zaca Mesa SantaBarbara Syrah Zaca Vineyards '94: Ripe lush blackberries some pencilly/oaked light dusty nose; soft ripe very spicy blackberry light pencilly/toasted oak flavor; a nicely done elegant-style Syrah. 
and that's all folks.... all in an afternoon's work! 

A few overall comments on the wines: There were a lot of outstanding, truly world-class Rhone wines in this tasting. There were very few examples of inept or poor winemaking. In a few cases, it seemed the winemaker was uncertain of what he wanted to achieve with his wine or was trying to make it into something it really didn't want to be. But in most cases the winemaker was letting the variety and the terrior speak for itself. 
     The Viogniers were, across the board, very good; ranging in style from delicate/ elegant fragrant ones to huge bombastic Dolly Parton-style Viogniers. In almost all cases, the winemaker keep the oak well in control. The wine consuming public likes wines with which they are familiar (i.e oaky Chard) and distinctive; which is why Viognier has been tough to popularize. But Viognier has a very distinctive aroma, not unlike Gewurz, and as people become aquainted with it, it's popularity can only grow. Mat's sure working hard to see that THAT happens. More interestingly, some of the Calif Viogniers are starting to show that slightly minerally/stoney character that makes great Condrieu so stunning a wine. 
     The Rousannes. We've only seen a few thus far but these first ones have been most impressive. They seem to have a lot of the same aromatics as Viognier, but often seem to be more structured on the palate. In fact, Rousanne, not Viognier, MAY be the wave of the future (Sorry, Mat!). Some producer's Rousanne are better Viogniers then their Viognier is, IMHO. 
     The Syrahs: I think it's clear that Calif is, w/o doubt, making world-class, truly great Syrah; Syrah that can compete mano-e-mano w/ great Hermitage. And again, we're starting to see some of that smokey/ roasted/espresso coffee character that makes Cote-Rotie so great; a character I think comes not from toasted/well- charred barrels, but from the terrior. 
     So, were this the Wine Spectator, I'd would make a list of my top 100 wines, so you could check your brain at the door, take the list & run right out a buy them, not have to do ANY thinking on your own or, heaven forbid, read & study the notes or do your homework. So, for those types, here goes!! 
     The Viogniers that stood out, in no particular order (actually alphabetically) were: Alban Estate, Andrew Murray, Cold Heaven, Eberle, both Greg Grahams, Ojai Roll Ranch, Villa Helena 
     The Syrahs that stood out were: Alban Reva, Andrew Murray, David Bruce, Eberle Frahlich, Ojai Bien Nacido, Qupe Bien Nacido Reserve and Hillside Select 
     There were also probably some that I missed, sorry about that. 
     After tasting thru all those wines, I then made one last pass to actually  drink & enjoy a few: Alban Reva Syrah, Qupe Bien Nacido Reserve & Hillside Select, Ojai Bien Nacido Syrah and, one of the real highlights of the day....drums roll, cymbals clang, kazoos brzzzzz.... the Ojai Late Harvest Viognier!! 
     Since I spit nearly all the wine, I exit the FairGrounds in very good  condition. So, ever the glutton for punishment, I head out Hwy 49 to stop at Tobin James & visit a bit w/ Toby. As is usually the case, Toby was in great form, cracking up the entire tasting room w/ his jokes. He felt his "wines were not showing well right now" so we didn't go to the barrels for tasting. But I retried a few things and then some other new wines: 

  • Tobin James Late Harvest Zinfandel '96: Intense blackberry/jammy very pencilly/ oaked nose; big rich intense jammy/blackberry/cassis very sweet mouthfilling pencilly/oaked flavor; much like the Ridge Essence but w/ oak. 
  • Tobin James Zinfandel Port '94: Blackberry/jammy rather Kansas feed store/ alcoholic/EverClear nose; soft blackberry jammy rather hot alcoholic flavor; the alcohol has not married yet & seems rather hot. 
So head back to the Country House Inn for a bit of rest before the evening's festivities. Skyler is out in the driveway shooting baskets so go out and shoot a few hoops with him before showering. 
     The Eberle's, clearly the Paso Robles party animals, are hosting another BarBQue at the winery, for the winemakers at the Festival and the Press people, so I head out to the Eberle Wnry once again. Still adhering to the itinerary, Larry & Laura and Claudia & Dave join me. Run into lots of good friends at this: Dan Berger, Joel Butler, Dennis Schaeffer, Lee & Shirley Sobon, John & Barbara MacCready, Dan Gehrs & Jim Fioleck (Zaca Mesa), Gordon Binz & Robert Smerling (Renwood). 
     And meet some new folks: Robin ? (Bill Sheffer's girlfriend, of Meridian Wnry), Ehren Jordan (Turley/Neyers Wnrys), Joe ? & Tony Craig (winemaker at David Bruce), Millie Howie (Wines&Vines), Matt Cline's wife (Cline Cellars). 
     Lots of wine are brought by people, so step back into the role of the wine weenie & take a few notes: 
  • Joel Butler French Clone Phelps Vineyard Syrah '86: Lovely complex fragrant pencilly/oaked bit roasted/toasty nose; light roasted some pencilly/ toasted oak very smooth complex flavor; drying out a bit but very complex mature red wine; very interesting 
  • Kunde Syrah '96: Fairly strong blackberry/juicy light oaked nose; soft fat blackberry/juicy flavor w/ little tannins; lack structure, much  better than the '95. 
  • Turley Hayne Vineyard Petite Sirah '95: Black color; strong fragrant peppery  oaked nose; big hard tannic black peppery toasty/oaked flavor; a huge PS but good acidity & structure. 
  • Renwood JackRabbitFlat Amador Zinfandel '95: Bright very spicy raspberry nose; rich very spicy raspberry jammy flavor. 
  • Renwood Grand Pere Amador Zinfandel '95: Dark color; intense licorice/blackberry chocolaty nose; big rich blackberry/licorice/Amador briary flavor; big rich extracted Zin. 
  • Elyse Howell Mountain Zinfandel '91: Strong blackberry/dusty old vines oaked nose;  fairly rich dusty/oaked/blackberry flavor; lots of blackberry fruit for HM Zin; developing quite nicely. 
Once the sun sets, the wind picks up, and it gets unusually cold for Paso this time of year. People elbow for space around Gary's BarBQue fire. Sales of Eberle sweatshirts in the tasting room are booming. Fortunately I have a fleece biking pullover in the car, so stay relatively warm. 
     Cast off the cork dork role, enjoy the people and then the very simple but very good meal, prepared by Gary & his staff: 
  • Tabboleh Salad 
  • Tossed Green Salad 
  • Potatoe Salad 
  • Garlic/Toasted Rolls 
  • Santa Maria Bar B Que Tri-Tip Steak 
  • Fresh Melon 
Finally the party winds down & I bid adeau to Dave & Claudia, Larry & Laura, and Gary & Jeannie, & head on out. Alas, all the wineries in the area are well past closing (it's around 11:00pm) so can't use the last hour of the day to taste more wines, so return to The Country House Inn and bag it for the day. 

Sunday, July 20, 1997 

Up relatively early for a short but badly needed bike ride... still too much oxygen down here. Eschew breakfast again but indulge in several cups of coffee. Visit a bit w/ CoraLee & Vickie, the two ladies from Escondido. Then get a phone call from Kathleen, a friend & chef from Santa Fe that now lives in Paso. She recently took a job as chef for Justin Wnry, a real plum of a position for someone w/ her culinary talents. Then pack up & head North up Hwy 101. Before the Salinas Valley, veer towards the east to a back road that takes me up to the Cienega Valley, country I've never been in before. Drive by the Mt.Harlan VA where Josh Jensen's Calera Wnry is located. This is pretty desolate, rugged country. Then into bucholic Hollister, then to Gilroy, past the Lion Oaks Vineyard, miss my turnoff towards several wineries in the area, so proceed across Hecker Pass & down on into Santa Cruz. Whilst I'm here just as well do another wnry, so stop at Storrs & taste: 

  • Storrs Central Coast Grenache '95: Light strawberry bit toasty/oaked nose; strong pungent/toasty/oaked weak strawberry fruit flavor; pretty simple 
  • Storrs Santa Cruz Mountain Petite Sirah '95: Light simple dusty some peppery/fruity nose; light peppery/spicy/fruit some toasty/oaked flavor; pleasant if  on the light side. 
  • Storrs GWT '96: Simple grapey/fruity light spicy nose; off-dry (0.8% r.s.) soft pineapply simple flavor; unthrilling. 
Starting to get a bit wined out by now. Stop at Shopper's Corner, a very nice grocery store owned by vnyd owner Jim Bureaugard from which Storr's make a great Zin and Thunder Mountain makes a ??? Chard (notes will follow after I taste the wine). Pick up a few interesting bottles & head east, stopping finally when I reach  Chez O'Brien in Pleasanton. Rose is back in Iowa doing the RAGBRAI, the bicycle ride across Iowa, so it's just Frankie, Rose's darling cat, and myself. Head down the street & shoot a few hoops before dinner. 
     And then I do one of the dumbest stunts ever in my life. I had made arrangements to meet Steve Bosquit at the Lark Creek Cafe in Walnut Creek. I glance at my restaurant guide book, note the Lark Creek Inn, way over in LarkSpur, on the other side of the Bay. So whip over there, just making it for out 8:00pm  reservation. But no reservation. I had completely spaced out the Walnut Creek venue. So a phone call verifies that Steve is over in Walnut Creek, awaiting my arrival at the Cafe. Not only did I miss out on the Ch. Lafite that Steve had brought to share, I missed out on very special company of one of the world's and  the InterNet's most highly regarded heretics. Really stupid!! Steve reports the wine was very good. To far to go, so eat there at the Lark Creek Inn. Worse mistakes could have been made, the meal was exceptional: 
 
  • Shredded Ham Hock/Fresh Shitakke Mushroom Ravioli w/ Red Chard & Asiago Cheese in a light Tomatoe Broth 
  • Vegetable Napolean (Beets, Rutabagas, Fennel, Polenta & others) w/ Laurel Chenel  Goat Cheese & White Truffle Essence 
  • Roasted Peach Spoonbread w/ Red Raspberry Ice Cream & White Peach Compote and the wine: 
  • Ojai Calif Syrah '95: Dark color; ripe pungent dusty oaked bit smokey some blackberry Syrah nose; soft blackberry rather dusty pungent smokey some oaked flavor; what an absolutelt delicious Syrah this is at a great price. 
This was a new wine on their list & my waiter was totally unfamiliar with it. So he takes the last 1/4'th bottle to the back to share w/ the others. Two of them come out to my table, raving about the wine. Two more converts to the Ojai Vineyards faith... it's an easy proselytization given the quality of Helen & Adam's wines!! 

Back to Chez O'Brien and some rest. 

Monday, July 21, 1997 

Wait for the rush hour traffic to clear, grab an espresso, than head to the Oakland airport for a 1:00 pm flight. Then it gets bad. Delta has canceled the Oakland to SLC flight, with no reason being offered for the cancelation. Worse, the desk attendant shows no interest in lining up alternative flight on another airline. So I have to wait in the Oakland airport for 5 hrs for the next Delta flight to SLC. She DOES offer me an $8 voucher for lunch there in the airport, but this extremely generous offer is spurned. Toy a bit w/ taking a taxi up the hwy to taste at Rosenblum Cellars, but decide .... enough is enough. Read a bit, nap a bit, and read some more. Finally catch my flights & make it back to Albq around 9:00 pm, much too late to make the tasting at Larry & Laura's in Santa Fe. Catch a great pizza at ElVecino & head home, arriving about 2:00 am. 

So only 206 wines by my count.... shoulda trained harder! 

TomHill 

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