by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

 
1. Harbor Winery Amador County Mission del Sol (18%) '76: Med.dark brown/red color; strong/aromatic  rather toasty/coconutty/smokey low fruit slight grapey rather oloroso-sherry/oxidized  some complex nose; off-dry complex rather toasted coconut/oaked smokey/coffee old sherry/  oxidized flavor; med.long coffee/toasted coconut/oaked pungent some complex finish;  rather elegant/delicate old sherry; interesting wine. $1.99 
2. Bernard Fouquet Domaine des Aubuisieres Vouvray Selection Grains Nobles Cuvee Alexandre  Moelleux Vielles Vignes (11%) '90: Med.light gold color; very intense grapey/floral/  honeysuckle light peachy/botrytis bit complex/earthy/minerally nose; very sweet/grapey  rather floral/honeysuckle/perfumed light peachy/botrytis light earthy/minerally flavor;  very long/lingering very intense grapey very sweet floral/honeysuckle light minerally/chalky  light peachy/botrytis finish.

1. Harbor Mission del Sol: I've not had this wine in some 15 yrs or so. It was made by Charlie  Meyers at HarborWnry, down in West Sacramento on Harbor Blvd, in an old auto repair shop out  back of Wingo & Sons Upholstery (least that was the business out front when I visited there  in '74) from very old Mission vines on the Deaver Ranch. The grapes were left on the vine  until they were raisened, then harvested to make a sweet (unfortified) dessert wine. When  I visited Deaver Ranch in '75; the craggy/raw-boned Ken Deaver, Sr. was especially proud of  gnarly/ugly old vines that dated before the turn of the century. I expect they're probably  ripped out by now.  In its youth, this wine was loaded w/ oak and had a very sweet very intense grapiness to  it; a classic Calif cream sherry style of wine. It has matured into a pretty nifty old/elegant  kind of cream sherry, more like an old oloroso. I still have a few btls left so we'll try one  in another 15-20 yrs and report back. 
2. Fouquet Vouvray: This was Howard & Rhoda Sherry's contribution. Probably one of the most  intense Vouvrays I've ever had. Not a lot of botrytis but a very very intense CheninBlanc  grapiness to it. It seemed more like an Eiswein than a botrytis Loire. It also seemed quite  young w/ lots of unresolved sugar; a mere babe. Probably a 20-30 yr Vouvray. Stunning stuff.