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.

Attended the two seminars at the Taos WinterWineFestival in January, 2003. The wines were either old friends (Ridge & Rosenblum Zins) or unremarkable. Afterwards, Larry Archibald & I adjourned to meet his wife, Laura, at Lambert's of Taos, probably  my favorite restaurant in Taos. Zeke was not doing a winemaker dinner this year, but was serving some special flights to go with his menu. This night, he was doing a set of Qupe wines. The five wines from his cellar were supplemented. The wines:

1. Qupe Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vineyard Roussanne 2000: Light gold color; fragrant floral/ honeysuckle some toasty/caramel/oak slight volatile/perfumey nose; tart bit alcoholic attractive floral/honeysuckle/Roussanne flavor; very nice almost Chard-like white.
2. Qupe Santa Ynez Valley Ibarra-Young Vineyard Viognier 1990: Med.gold color; rather toasty/caramel/ pungent/Fr.oak/butterscotchy complex rather Chard-like slight volatile nose; soft/smooth mostly caramel/butterscotchy/oak slight earthy/complex flavor; little Viognier character and more like an older/mature Calif Chard; interesting and still alive but not much Viognier.
3. Qupe Santa Barbara County Los Olivos Cuvee (55% S, 27% M, 18% G; 68% Ibarra-Young Vineyard, 32% Stolpman Vineyard) 2000: Med. color; fragrant rather strawberry/Grenache slight meaty/earthy nose; soft/smooth lots of lush/strawberry/Grenache slight meaty/earthy/plummy flavor; seems dominated by the Grenache right now; nice drinking red.
4. Qupe Santa Barbara County Los Olivos Cuvee (70% S, 30% M) 1994: Med.color; rather funky/bretty/ horsecollar some earthy little fruit nose; soft/smooth rather bretty/barnyardy/funky slight earthy/blackberry flavor; lots of funky/bretty character and not much fruit; interesting rather Rhonish-like wine.
5. Qupe Santa Barbara County Los Olivos Cuvee (67% S, 33% M) 1993: Med.color; lovely complex pungent/ smokey some toasted/roasted/blackberry/plummy nose; soft/smooth/round pungent/roasted/tarry slight blackberry/plummy flavor; fully mature and great drinking w/ good complexity.
6. Qupe Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vineyard Reserve Syrah 2000: Med.color; attractive bit light  pleasant/blackberry/Syrah light toasty/oak nose; soft/smooth bit light attractive Syrah/ blackberry bit simple slight pungent/plummy flavor; nice Syrah blackberry fruit but just that.
7. Qupe Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vineyard Reserve Syrah 1994: Med.color; beautiful pungent/smokey/ complex/roasted rather Rhonish nose; sof/smooth slight green olive pungent/smokey some blackberry/Syrah complex flavor; classic BNR w/ lovely roasted/pungent character; probably  will go a few more yrs.
8. Qupe Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vineyard Reserve Syrah 1992: Much like the '94 but a bit less  green olive character & more primary/blackberry fruit; lovely complex pungent character.
9. Edmunds St. John GrandHeritage Syrah (58% Durell, 42% Fenaughty) 1993: Very dark color; terrific pungent/smokey/roasted rather toasty/pencilly/Fr.oak peppery/blackberry/Syrah very spicy nose; rather pencilly/charred/toasty/oak rather peppery/blackberry/Syrah bit earthy rather NorthernRhone flavor w/ some hard tannins; maybe drying out a bit, maybe needs more age; classic SteveEdmunds/Rhonish Syrah.

1. LosOlivosCuvee: This is BobLindquist's Rhone-blend. It's always been one of my favorite Calif Rhone blends. It's never a very dramatic wine upon release and seems to be meant for near-term drinking. But I've found it to age remarkably well, probably because of its balance and be at its most interesting at 5-10 yrs of age. Best of all....it's cheap.
2. BienNacidoReserve Syrah: Another Syrah that I've followed from the very start. I always try them on release and nearly always shake my head in disappointment that Bob's losing it and it's just not the wine of earlier vintages. And then I'll try it again a few yrs later when it seems to have put on weight and blossomed into a lovely/balanced great-drinking Syrah. Never a very powerful/dramatic Syrah early on, the BNR seems more about balance and elegance rather than sheer power.
3. EdStJ GrandHeritage: Killer Syrah very much in the EdStJ/Rhonish style w/ lots of pungent character. I seem to recall liking the '92 a bit more, but this is a stunning wine. The next  day, the pungent/pencilly oak seemed much more dominant then that night at Zeke's.

TomHill