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.

 Whites               
 
1. Mantinia Tselepos (Moschofilero variety) 2000: Light yellow color; lovely floral/fragrant Riesling-like bit stoney nose; off-dry spicy/floral perfumed/fragrant some steely/stoney flavor; med.long spicy/ floral steely/stoney finish; quite a tart/acid backbone but verty fragrant/floral character; much like an Albarino; great value at $11.50 
2. Gaia Estate Thalassitis Santorini (Assyrtico variety; Episkopi Vineyard; Ungrafted 80 yr old vines) 2000: Med.light gold color; rather earthy/stoney/steely Albarino/OregonPinotGris nose; very tart/lean/ steely rather spicy/floral AlsatianRiesling-like flavor; med.long tart/stoney/austere floral/fragrant finish; much like Alsatian or Oz Riesling; should age well; fairly priced at $16.00.
3. Gaia Estate Thalassitis Santorini OakFermented (Assyrtico variety; Episkopi Vineyard; Ungrafted  80 yr old vines; New French Nevers oak) 2000: Med.light gold color; fragrant pencilly/Fr.oak spicy some  appley/stoney nose; softer spicy/pencilly/Fr.oak appley/floral flavor; med.long softer rather strong/ pencilly/Fr.oak bit stoney/steely finish; rounder & softer & more international in style but rather less interesting than #$16.00   
Rose 
1. Domaine Spyropoulos Meliasto Mantinia (Moshofilero variety) 1999: Pale copper/salmon color; bit smokey/ perfumed spicy/cinammon/fragrant/floral very attractive nose; slight frizzante very spicy/cinammon/nutmeg floral/fragrant slight steely/metallic tart flavor; med.short spicy/cinammon/floral clean/crisp slight steely finish; a lovely crisp rose at a good price. $12.00  Reds  GaiaEstate Notios ("The One From The South") Nemea (Agiorgitiko variety) 2000: Med.color; strong grapey/ very fruity/whole-berry fermentation bit earthy/dusty/rustic some Dolcetto/Languedoc-like nose; soft/ round very grapey/fruity some hard/Dolcetto-like/earthy spicy bit stoney flavor; med.long grapey/ Dolcetto-like/hard bit tannic bitey finish; very much like an Italian Dolcetto; good rustic wine.
2. Kyr-Yanni Ramnistas Naoussa (100% Xinomavro variety) 1997: Dark color; strong grapey/bannana bread w/ walnuts very spicy/licorice some earthy bit alcoholic very ripe SouthernFrance/Languedoc nose; tart/lean/tannic/ hard/rough grapey/bannana bread dusty/old vines rough/rustic/Languedoc-like flavor; long hard/tannic/ rough grapey/spicy very dusty/old vines licorice finish w/ ample tannins; lots of Languedoc character and much like a rough/Pinotage wine.
3. Tsantalis Rapsani Epilegmenos Reserve (variety??) 1994: Med.light color; lovely/fragrant very ripe/hot climate/Italian bit rustic/unclean rather spicy nose; soft/round/lush licorice/chocolaty quite spicy  slight oak very interesting/attractive flavor; long quite spicy/licorice some complex bit hot-climate finish w/ light tannins; very interesting and ready to drink.
4. Domaine Mercouri Letrinon (Refosco variety) 1997: Med.dark color; rather reduced/H2S/barnyardy/burnt rubber nose that clears up beautifully to a lovely pungent cpmplex coffee/mocha slight toasty/oak nose; soft rather tannic/grapey/earthy/hard very Fruili/Refosco some mocha/coffee/pungent flavor; very long grapey/licorice bit hard/tannic mocha/pungent finish; needs a bit of age; some like a Fruili Refosco, some like a SouthernRhone.
5. Gaia Estate Nemea (Agiorgitika variety; Koutsi Vineyard) 1998: Med.dark color; rather toasty/Fr.oaked spicy  blackcurranty/chocolaty/ripe international-style nose; tart rather tannic toasty/Fr.oaked cola/Dr.Pepper/ chocolaty rich dusty/old vines blackcurranty flavor; long tannic cola/Dr.Pepper/blackcurranty/chocolaty toasty/pungent/Fr.oaked finish w/ fair tannins; needs 2-5 yrs; a premium wine made in the international style; priced reasonable at $25.00 
Sweet/Dessert 
1. Samos Coop Ecclesiastical/Altar Wine (Muscat Frontignan variety planted after phylloxera)  NV: Med. brownish color; very ripe grapey/passito/muscatty/alcoholic very perfumed/fragrant brown sugar/caramel  some fresh hay/Kansas feed store complex nose; quite sweet very raisened/PX-like/grapey/muscatty complex flavor; very long raisened/caramel sweet complex/aged finish; much like a lighter PX or an Oz old muscat; a beautiful complex passito dessert wine; some like a lighter version of Harbor Mission Del Sol; I'd worship at this altar any anytime. A steal at $14.00.
2. Mezzo Santorini (Asyrtiko & Aidani varieties; Passito wine) 1999: Med.light brown/gold color; beautiful/ complex very honeyed/baklava very grapey/perfumed bit alcoholic nose; very sweet very perfumed grapey/ raisened/passito/butterscotchy maybe botrytis/honeyed flowery bit muscatty flavor; very long/lingering passito/raisened/butterscotchy/honeyed very perfumed/fragrant quite sweet finish; lots of complexity for such a young wine; a long life ahead of it; an absolute steal at $15.20. 
3. Ktima Monastery of Toplou (Liatiko variety) NV: Med. bit browning color; very intense passito/raisened/ walnutty light muscatty/Aleatico-like very fragrant/perfumed slight volatile/alcoholic complex nose; somewhat sweet passito sherry/muscatty raisened very perfumed/fragrant complex tart flavor; very long/lingering walnutty/passito/nutty/sherry-like light muscatty fragrant complex finish; terrific passito/dessert wine at a terrific price. $18.00 
4. Arghyros Vin Vanto Santorini 1983: Med.rather brown color; very intense very perfumed/fragrant/aromatic very complex walnutty/hazelnutty bit volatile/alcoholic some oloroso/PX incredible nose; very sweet raisened/volatile walnutty/nutty very perfumed very complex flavor; incredible complex very sweet walnutty very perfumed/fragrant finish that goes on and on; a stunning/complex  wine and reasonable priced at $52.50.
And if this wern't enough, some more dessert wines to celebrate Connie's BD:
1. Rosenblum Calif Muscat de Glacier (13.2%) 2000: Pale yellow color; very intense grapey/muscatty clean fragrant nose; very sweet clean tart bright muscatty lively flavor; quite sweet clean bright/zippy floral/muscatty finish; Ken't first effort at an icebox Eiswein and a very successful one at that; lots of clean bright fruit but great balance and not at all cloying; terrific Eiswein.
2. Yalumba Museum Muscat Victoria Dessert Wine (18.0%) NV: Dark brown color; intense beautiful complex muscatty oaked very perfumed/fragrant nose; very sweet very complex caramel/butterscotchy/coconutty/ fragrant/muscatty flavor w/ a finish that goes on and on; keller dessert wine.

1. All these wines came from Darrell Corti in Sacramento. When I was out there a month ago, a saw this $50+ Greek wine and was aghast. Darrell assured me that Greek wines are not all about Retsina anymore and that I would be surprised by their quality. He was, of course, right and I was, of course, surprised. The SantaFe group, not known for their acceptance of wines that deviate from the mainstream, were even pleasantly surprised by the quality.
2. I've always associated Greece with  blazing hot sunshine. I was expecting the wines, especially the  whites, to be on the soft and flabby side. I was quite struck by the bracing acidity they displayed.
3. Greece appears to be a country that fully embraces, without apology, all the indigeneous/unknown varieties that abound in that country. One of the goals of this tasting for me was to try to get a feel for the character of these varieties. Mostly they seemed to have a bit of a rustic character. The variety I was most struck by was the Laitiko, which reminded me a lot of Aleatico, one of my favorite varieties. One hopes that the Greeks can both stave off an invasion by the Chardonnay/Cabernet/Merlot mauraders seeking to impose their will on one more country and also falling to the siren song of the international style of winemaking that will garner them the high scores from certain Monktown attourneys.
4. Some of these labels were entirely illegal labels, being entirely in Greek. Makes for a hard time determining exactly what kind of wine you have. The only readable text on wine #10 was the Samos. Darrell had to help me out that it was Altar wine. The wine was enough to make me get religion.
5. Passito wines: I've, of course, followed passito wines from the very start, back to Pliny The Elder's time. They are some of my favorite dessert wines. Darrell first introduced me to them with some of the old Caluso Passitos (Erbaluce grape) he had back in the mid-'70's. It's a genre that's made throughout Italy. Some of the ones that have been imported in the last 10 yrs or so are amazing wines; truly one of the world's great dessert wines. Of course, if brown color in a wine, a sign of oxidation, is regarded as a defect, then this style of wine is not for everyone. Of this selection of Greek wines; I was easily the most impressed by these passito/dessert wines. They are wonderful complex sweet dessert wines and very reasonable prices. This genre of dessert wines is one that should be pursued more in Calif. Many areas don't have the conditions to make botrytis dessert wines. But they CAN make wonderful dessert passito wines in many cases. One of the best is Charlie Myer's Harbor Winery Mission Del Sol, made from very old-vine Amador County Mission grapes. Lee Sobon has also made some very good ones. Cary Gott made some special ones at Montevina back in his day.
6. Vin Santo: Long associated with Italian wines, I find them sort of a mixed bag. Sometimes dry, sometimes sweet; often inbetween; sometimes oxidized. You have to kiss some frogs to find a prince. As Darrell tells me; VinSanto actually origined on Santorini. This Arghyros was probably the best VinSanto I've yet had.