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.

 

California Italian Varietals and Zinfandels
Tasted this week some new California reds (Italian varietals/Zins):
Margerum Rosso Riserva Calif RTW (20% Nebbiolo, 80% Fresia) '95: Med.dark color; rather pungent tarry bit smokey/herbal some black cherry slight burnt rubber nose; tart oaked pungent some metallic/astringent light black cherry/herbal flavor; med.long astringent black cherry pungent smokey/oaked tart finish; good food wine and very Italian/barbera in character.
Acorn Russian River Valley Sonoma County Dolcetto Alegria Vineyard (14.1%%) '95: Med.dark color; deep dusty grapey/Dolcetto some earthy/dusty nose; hard astringent dusty/ earthy/Dolcetto bit oaked flavor; med.long hard astringent Dolcetto/earthy/grapey rough finish; needs 2-5 yrs age; lots of Dolcetto on the nose but rather hard & astringent on the palate.
Il Podere Calif Dolcetto (12.8%%) '96: Med.color; strong herbal/smokey/dusty slightly reduced/stinky/burnt rubber nose; tart dusty walnutty earthy metallic some milky aoked flavor; med. long astringent tannic pungent earthy/Dolcetto/ walnutty flavor; needs 2-5 yrs of age.
Scotland Craig Napa Valley Dolcetto TW '95: Med.dark color; attractive grapey/ Dolcetto fragrant some pencilly/oaked cherry cough drops nose; tart rather grapey/ dusty/earthy/Dolcetto some pencilly/Fr. oaked spicy bit astringent flavor; med. long grapey/dusty/Dolcetto some cherry/licorice bit astringent finish; needs several yrs of age; pretty interesting Dolcetto.
Pietra Santa San Benito County Dolcetto (13.5%%) '96: Med.dark color; some barnyard/ brett rather dusty/Dolcetto spicy s;ight jammy nose; soft lush chocolaty/plummy rather dusty/Dolcetto some bitter/tannic flavor; med.long chocolaty/plummy ripe jammy grapey/Dolcetto somewhat bitter finish; interesting wine w/ lots of ripeness.
Per Sempre Vero Napa Valley Dolcetto (13%%) '94: Med.dark color; deep plummy/ chocolaty/oaked very ripe nose; soft off-dry cherry cola/plummy grapey/Dolcetto cherry cough syrup dusty lush spicy flavor; long off-dry plummy/chocolaty/ very grapey/Dolcetto slight astringent finish; very lush & grapy & very ripe.
Martini & Prati Fuoco di Saint Elmo Calif RTW Uvaggio Primo (13.5%) '93: Med.dark color; deep lush very spicy oaked perfumed lush bit blackberry/Zin nose; soft cherry/grapey some Zin/blackberry quite spicy some oaked flavor; med.long soft spicy cherry/blackberry/Zin lush light oaked finish w/ little tannins; seems mostly Zin w/ some Am.oak; overpriced at $21.
Pietra Santa Sassolino Calif RTW (13.5%%; Sangiovese/CS) '95: Dark color; deep pungent/smokey slight reduced/burnt rubber rather herbal/dusty Cab nose; soft lush herbal/Cab spicy light cherr/black cherry bit charred oak/pungent flavor; med. long charred oak/pungent soft herbal/Cab/dusty licorice finish w/ some tannins; needs several yrs; dominated by Cab & little Sangiovese character.
Ridge Calif Dry Creek Sangiovese (85%% Sangiovese, 10%% CabFranc, 5%% CS; 13.7%; Lytton West Vnyd) '96: Med.dark color; deep blackberry lush oaked slight toasty/ pungent some black cherry complex rich nose; rich milky/Am.oaked/pungent lush blackberry/black cherry bit tart flavor; very long very spicy Am.oaked/pungent some blackberry/black cherry finish w/ some tannins; needs several yrs; not a lot of obvious Sangiovese character but really superb Ridge red wine.
Montevina Amador County Refosco '95: Very dark color; rather pungent/licorice/ grapey rather dusty/earthy/mushroomy nose; tart acid hard astringent big dusty/ earthy grapey flavor; med.long tart hard lean astringent earthy/dusty/pungent bit grapey finish; needs 2-4 yrs; one of the biggest Montevina wines in quite a long time. Good value at $10.
Cavatappi Maddelena Washington State Nebbiolo Red Willow Vineyard (14.4%%) '95: Med.dark color; strong toasty pungent smokey Fr.oaked slight tarry/herbal nose; big rich astringent dusty/earthy pungent/smokey some herbal/tarry hard flavor; long hard tannic rather herbal/dusty/ tarry/pungent/ smokey finish; needs much age; a big extracted herbal/ dusty wine much like Washington State Cabernets; very interesting red.
Rosenblum Cellars Dry Creek Valley Rock Pile Vineyard Zinfandel (15.2%%) '96: Med.color; strong lush ripe bright/raspberry very spicy/fragrant nose; tart very fragrant bright raspberry cherry floral very spicy some buttery/oaked flavor; long very spicy bright raspberry/Zinberry lush silky light buttery oaked finish w/ light tannins; a bright silky Zin loaded w/ bright raspberry spicy character; super Zin but not a long ager.
Rosenblum Contra Costa County Reserve Pato Ranch (14.7%%) Zin '96: Med.color; deep dusty/plummy cinammon/cloves spicy/floral nose; soft lush ripe plummy/dusty/ blackberry spicy/cinammon flavor; very long dusty/old vines ripe plummy/blackberry spicy/cinammon/cloves finish w/ light tannins; a big rich lush plummy CC Zin.
Rosenblum Mt.Veeder Brandlin Ranch Napa Valley Zinfandel '94: Med.dark color; deep black- berry very ripe spicy/dusty/briary some tobaccoy nose; soft rich pencilly/toasty/ light tobaccoy oaked light briary/blackberry flavor; med.long pencilly/oaked/ pungent tobaccoy some blackberry/raspberry finish w/ light tannins; very attractive Zin but seems to be moving right along.
Dover Canyon Paso Robles Jan Kris Vineyard (14.2%%) Zin '96: Dark color; rather strange/ herbal very ripe jammy bit pickle juice nose; soft rather herbal/slight pickle juice some jammy/blackberry flavor; long overripe herbal some blackberry/jammy earthy finish w/ light tannins; an interesting rather herbal Zin.
Grgich Hills Sonoma County (13.7%%) Zinfandel '95: Very dark color; strong dusty/coffee rather mtn-Zin dusty bit closed nose; hard tannic dusty mtn-Zin some blackberry oaked flavor; long hard tannic mtn-Zin dusty/earthy rather pungent/smokey Fr.oak finish; needs 5-10 yrs but not that much fruit; a big hard mountain Zin.
Ridge Calif Zinfandel Hearts Desire Vineyard Late Harvest Trentadue Ranch (14.7%%; 1.5%% rs) '95: Med.dark color; strong very ripe raspberry/blackberry/jammy bit overripe nose; sweet very ripe bright raspberry/blackberry very spicy/lush loads of fruit flavor; very long very ripe spicy/bright raspberry/blackberry tons of fruit finish w/ light tannins; really lovely stuff.

And once again from the bloody pulpit:
The Ridge Hearts Desire is from one of the old clones that Ridge has planted at the Trentadue Ranch to see the kinds of wines the 4 clones produce. They got very ripe (26.6%%) before they were picked. Normally, it would have just been blended into the Geyserville, but because of its ripeness, it seriously perturbed the character of the Geyserville, so was left separate. Paul Draper wanted to release it as an ATP wine but the rest of the Ridge staff thought it was so different from the Ridge style that it shouldn't be. Paul (this time) yielded to their opinion and the wine (30 barrels worth, about 700 cases) was released to a few distributors and not even sold at the winery. Too bad, because the wine is super stuff; tons & tons of bright raspberry fruit; sort of a junior Ridge Essence. It probably will age very well. Those in whose market the wine appeared are very very lucky. This bottle was compliments of Paul Draper.
The Ridge Sangiovese..... another super Ridge red. It doesn't have that hard lean acid astringent character of most Calif Sangiovese. My belief is that Calif Sangiovese is best blended or co-fermented with other varieties. This wine demonstrates that fact very well. Those it doesn't have that bright cherry/black cherry fragrance I like so much in Sangiovese, it's terrific red wine.
California Dolcetto..... another grape variety they're still trying to figure out in Calif. They tend to be on the hard/astringent/tannic side but have a very interesting dusty/earthy/grapey character to them. Another variety that probably needs something blended into it. The Scotland Craig was quite good but my favorite still is the Kent Rasmussen.... despite its hideous cobalt blue bottle.