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. Qupe Santa Barbara County Viognier Los Olivos Vineyard (12.5%) 1993: Med.gold color; slight nutty/hazel- nutty fragrant/pear/Viognier very perfumed slight volatile nose; soft/fat/minerally rich/lush spicy/peachy/pear very perfumed flavor; very long lush/fat/rich peach/Viognier finish; a slight volatility but very perfumed/fragrant wine; great shape for a 9 yr old Viognier.
2. Arrowood Russian River Valley Viognier Saralee's Vineyard (14.2%) 1992: Med.gold color; somewhat pencilly/ oaked light fragrant/pear light butterscotchy slight oxidized nose; soft/fat slight oxidized some pencilly/butterscotchy/oaked bit licorice/fennel little fruit some bitter flavor; med. short light oak/butterscotchy/caramel slight fennel/spicy finish; not a bad wine and mildly interesting but just sorta faded and tired.
3. Stag'sLeap Napa Valley Viognier (14.1%) 1999: Med.gold color; very lovely peach/pear/Viognier very fragrant/aromatic nose; soft/fat/flat oily weak pear/Viognier flavor; short light pear/Viognier fat/flabby finish; terrific nose but doesn't follow thru on the palate; a DollyParton at 80.
4. Stolpman Vineyards Sanya Ynez Valley Viognier (15.2%; 161 cs) 2000: Med.gold color; some corked strange weedy/herbal/overripe/raisened some oxidized nose; rather hot/alcoholic/fat overripe/rotted apples some oaky/butterscotchy some bitter flavor; noticibly corked but also overripe/late harvesty in character. $25.00 (LA)
5. Jaffurs Santa Barbara County Stolpman Vineyard Roussanne (13.7%) 1997: Med.gold color; strong stoney/ earthy some butterscotchy/rotted apple/caramel some perfumed very Rhonish nose; rather tart/ hard very textured/oily some butterscotchy/oak rich/floral very Rhonish quite complex flavor; very long tart/firm ripe/textured rotted apple/light caramel/apple pie complex finish; very interesting white. Larry's mystery wine.
6. Consilience Santa Barbara County Viognier (13.5%) 2000: Med.gold color; beautiful fragrant/perfumed/ aromatic very ripe peach/Viognier nose; soft/fat/lush/oily light pear/Viognier some bitter flavor;  short soft/fat weak pear/Viognier finish; terrific perfumed nose but delivers little on the palate.
7. Turley The White Coat SLO County (Roussanne/Viognier from Alban Vineyard/Edena Valley and Rozet Vineyard/Paso Robles) 2000: Med.dark gold color; beautiful perfumed/fragrant strong toasty/Fr.oak very ripe fruit/rotted apple/apple pie/floral complex nose; rich toasty/smokey/Fr.oak very ripe exotic/rotted apple/apple pie/very spicy slight bitter flavor; very long toasty/smokey/Fr.oak powerful/exotic complex apple pie/floral/perfumed finish that goes on and on; very controversial wine.
8. Rosenblum Cellars Sonoma County Marsanne DryCreek Valley (14.1%) 2000: From LouPreston's grapes. Med.light color; lovely very fragrant Viognier-like spicy some toasty/oak nose; soft/fat rather toasty/ butterscotchy/Fr.oak floral/perfumed flavor; med.long soft/lush floral/perfumed some toasty/oak finish; not the usual Marsanne austerity.
9. Qupe Marsanne SantaYnez Valley (80% Marsanne from Ibarra-Young vnyd, 20% Roussanne from  Stolpman vnyd; 13.0%) 2001: Med.gold color; strong some appley/Marsanne slight austere/stoney rather floral/aromatic/Roussanne nose; tart/hard light appley/Marsanne somewhat textured/floral/ Roussanne/perfumed flavor; med.long perfumed/floral light appley/Marsanne finish; much more aromatic than previous vintages. A steal at $15.00.
10. Ojai Vineyard Vin du Soleil Blanc (Roussanne/Viognier; 14.5%) 2000: Med.gold color; beautiful/fragrant/ perfumed floral/hazelnutty complex some pencilly/toasty/oak very floral/aromatic nose; soft very spicy/floral/Viognier light butterscotchy/pencilly/Fr.oak complex flavor; very long/lingering slight toasty/oak quite floral/fragrant finish; lightly oak very perfumed lovely white.
11. Edmunds St. John Los Robles Viejos Rozet Vineyard Paso Robles WhiteWine (Roussanne/Viognier) 2000: Med.dark gold color; rather toasty/butterscotchy Roussanne/nutty/hazelnutty very ripe (botrytis?) complex smokey nose; soft/rich/lush light toasty/butterscotchy ripe very floral/ perfumed smokey flavor; very long/lingering ripe floral/aromatic/hazelnutty/peach light smokey/ butterscotchy complex finish; a lovely very interesting white; tastes like a lot of new oak but it's probably not oak; lots like the BeaucastelBlanc below; well-priced at $27.00.
12. Ch.deBeaucastel CdP Blanc (13.5%) 1999: Dark gold color; lovely fragrant/butterscotchy very ripe/ spicy/caramel bit earthy/dusty complex nose; soft/rich/lush floral/perfumey/hazelnutty very complex/spicy flavor; very long/lush/floral hazelnutty/spicy complex finish; terrific/complex CdPBlanc.
13. Equus Paso Robles Roussanne (15.0%) 1999: Med.dark gold color; lovely floral/hazelnutty/spicy/ apple pie some toasty/oak complex nose; soft/fat very floral/aromatic/hazelnutty very spicy/ cloves/nutmeg some butterscotchy/toasty flavor; med.long ripe/floral/hazelnutty butterscotchy complex finish; big/powerful aromatic Roussanne.
14. Qupe Santa Maria Valley Roussanne Bien Nacido Vineyard (13.5%; EB) 2000: Med.gold color; bit volatile quite perfumed/floral/hazelnutty some buttery/oak complex/smokey nose; soft/lush/round oaked/ butterscotchy very perfumed/floral/spicy flavor; long soft/lush/ripe floral/perfumed slight hot some toasty/butterscotchy finish; a lot like Bob's Chards w/ a slight volatile lift; big lovely white.
15. Terre Rouge Sierra Foothills Roussanne (14.5%) 1999: Med.dark gold color; slight oxidized/ hazelnutty/aged very ripe/Roussanne/rotted apple light toasty/oak nose; soft/rich/lush some nutty/hazelnutty/oxidized very ripe/floral/rotted apple light toasty flavor; long rich/ripe aged/hazelnutty/nutty some floral/perfumed finish; seems to be moving right along for a '99; lots of very ripe character.
16. Eberle Vineyard Syrah Fralich Vineyard (13.3%) 1993: Med.dark color; strong strawberry/blackberry bit toasty/charred/pungent/Fr.oak fragrant somewhat bretty nose; tart strawberry/black cherry/ blackberry/black cherry colasome toasty rather bretty flavor; med.long bright strawberry/Syrah light toasty finish w/ light tannins; lots of bright/lively Syrah fruit but a good dose of brett. Larry's mystery wine.
17. Paramimma McLarenVale Shiraz 1999: Very dark color; very strong coconutty/toasty/vanilla/Am. oaked/bourbn some boysenberry/Syrah nose; soft/ripe very strong black cherry/cola/boysenberry/ cough syrup very vanilla/coconutty/Am.oak flavor; very long lush/ripe black cherry/cola/boysen- berry very toasted coconut/oaked finish w/ some tannins; still needs a few yrs; classic Oz Shiraz.

1. Although I've followed Calif WhiteRhones from the very start, this was the first one I've done devoted solely to them. It was a pretty good bunch of wines. Only thing missing: JimHarris!! He would have been in hog-heaven (Kansas colloquialism) last night!
2. StolpmanViognier: This 2000 was made by CraigMacMillan and then probably finished up by SashiMoorman.  Although the wine was somewhat corked, it also tasted as if it had some winemaking problems along the way. The 2001 we tasted, just bttld, at the winery w/ Sashi was absolutly first-rate, as good as any I've had from the SantaYnez Valley.
3. JaffursRoussanne: Larry brought this mystery and we served it to replace the corked Stolpman. I was pretty convinced it was some high-end SouthernRhone CdP. It had that lean stoney/earthy character that those SouthernRhones have but a big/thick/unctuous texture to it. Quite surprised when it turned out to be a Jaffurs. Craig makes his whites in a bit leaner/harder style, less of a DollyParton style. It showed in this wine. I expect it to soldier on for another 3-5 yrs.
4. TurleyWhiteCoat: This is the first WhiteRhone out from Turley Cellars, to my knowledge. No doubt about it; it's very Turley in style. Most people thought it was over-oaked and disliked it. I, who never see'd an oak stave I didn't like, thought it had such exotic/powerful fruit that it could carry the oak and found the wine very intriguing; liked it a lot for its eccentric style. It reminded me of some of Manfred Krankl's whites. More accurately, this wine reminded me a lot of the DavidBruce GWT '78 (?); one of the more bizarre wines I've had. That was a powerfully- scented GWT that was, in David's inimical fashion, loaded up w/ new French oak. Pretty weird stuff, but I loved it. This WhiteCoat was cut from the same cloth, I thought. Serve it only to the open-minded friends.
5. RosenblumMarsanne: The wine had a fragrance that spoke to me much more of Viognier than of Marsanne. Since LouPreston does have Viognier planted there, I suspect there is also some Viognier in this wine. I never recall any of the Preston Marsannes having this much fragrance to them. But nicely done wine.
6. QupeMarsanne: I've followed BobLindquist's Marsannes from the very start. He was, as I recall, the first Marsanne producer in Calif. They have always come from the LosOlivos Vineyard, now Ibarra-Young  Vineyard. In the past, they've always been 100% Marsanne. This produces a wine that is rather stoney/earthy/ appley fairly simple at first, then they really shut down for a few yrs, but to emerge down the road with the nutty/oxidized-like very perfumed character; a white variety that really benefits from aging. With the '01 vintage, Bob has begun adding Roussanne to the wine; producing a wine with much more aromatics when it's just released. It'll be interesting to watch how these wines age.
7. WhiteRhoneBlends: Many of the Calif red blends, modeled on the Chateauneuf blends, have been very successful. The EdmundsStJohn LesCotesSauvage was easily one of the best, a world-class red. The white blends in Calif seem to not have been quite so sucessful. Perhaps it's because the CdP Blancs are few and far between and many of them not particularly good; rather earthy/stoney and austere. Probably it's also driven by the thought that most consumers automatically regard a pure varietal as superior to a blend. BobLindquist has been making his Viognier/Chard blend for a fair number of yrs and it was one of the first. I've not been particularly taken by it. It reminds me more of a Chard wanna-be more than anything. Nicely done and reasonably priced, but it doesn't float my boat. It seems to me that this may be changing. The Beaucastel was killer stuff. The Ojai and the EdStJohn were some of the best ones I've yet had from Calif; terrific perfumed/aromatic wines with the richness and structure on the palate that one finds in great Chard. That's a compliment. I'm looking forward to seeing more as more Roussanne is getting planted.