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.

 

Old Ridge Wine
Invited to dinner at John & Adele Hopkins Friday night and had (in addition to a wonderful meal) a wonderful trip down Nostalgia Lane:
Ridge Coast Range Zinfandel (12.7%) '73: Med. light color w/ slight browning; some raspberry fruit bit tobaccoy/cedary/old Zin complex bit smokey nose; soft smooth round light raspberry fruit rather cedary/pencilly/smokey bit dried-out flavor; med. light elegant/complex/smooth light raspberry rather pencilly/smokey/ cedary finish w/ little tannins; smooth elegant round old Zin that's a real pleasure to drink.
Ridge Lodi Zin (12.2%) '72: Rather light some browning color; bit tired classic Lodi earthy/dusty bit oxidized/pencilly/smokey little fruit nose; soft light bit washed out some earthy/mushroomy bit pencilly/smokey flavor; light smooth/soft rather dusty/earthy/mushroomy some pencilly/smokey finish w/ little tannins; a bit on the oxidized and tired side but not too dried-out & astringent and still an interesting wine.
Ridge Lytton Springs Zin (12.8%) '73: Med.dark color; rather strong blackberry/ raspberry/fruit some dusty/old vines bit cedary/pencilly/smokey nose; soft/round smooth fairly lush some blackberry/raspberry some cedary/pencilly flavor; long round/soft/smooth fairly lush blackberry/raspberry bit dusty some pencilly/ cedary very complex finish w/ little tannins; on the light/elegant side but lots of complexity and still plenty of lush fruit; amazing wine.

And a disproportionally large bloody pulpit whilst tooling down Nostalgia Lane:
John & Adele Hopkins took one of my very first wine appreciation classes, ca. 1973. I'd like to take credit for teaching them all they know about wine, but, alas, I was only a catalyst. They've been taking far, far too many data points out on their own since then. Back in that time frame, my group was buying a fair amount of wines, particularly Ridges, up at the Liquor Mart in Boulder. All three of these bottles came that route and had gotten "lost" down in the depth's of John & Adele's crawl space cum wine cellar. This dinner was an occasion to try some of these discoveries.
The '73 Coast Range was in absolutely marvelous shape for very much a "lesser" Ridge Zinfandel. A little of the "old Zin" character but still some raspberry fruit lurking in the background. This wine was released up at Liquor Mart at $3.99/btl. We tasted it & liked it soooo much (high QPR in today's lexicon) that we ordered a sh*tload (as we say in Kansas) of it from Liquor Mart. I rented a U-Haul trailor and brought down some 70 case's worth from Boulder. It put me on the map w/ the folks up at Ridge Vnyds (afore I'd made my first of many visits there) as sombody down in NewMexico who was a bit more than a little off-scale. I've done nothing since that time to dispell that reputation up there. Ridge started producing in the '96 vintage again the Coast Range Zin.... but priced around $15/btl. I complained like bloody hell to Ridge marketing genuis Donn Riesen about the HUGE price escalation over the previous Ridge Coast Range; but he seemed not at all sympathetic to my grousing.
The '72 Lodi, made from one of Calif's "lesser" areas was likewise in remarkable shape, considering it lack of pedigreed origins. I expected the wine to be totally dead.... and it was not. Even after 27 yrs of age, that Lodi character came thru load & clear in the wine.
This was the 3'rd time I've had the '73 Lytton Springs since the start of the year (not like that it's becomming my house wine or anything) and the only one drunk in a "recreational" context. The first one in late January from Blair Swartz's cellar was rather on the tired & dried out side.... an "intellectual" experience. The 2'nd bottle, directly from the Ridge archives, was beautiful/ complex in the nose but a bit too tired/dried-out on the palate. This bottle was by far the best of the three and had an amazing lushness and fruit still in both the nose and the palate; it was a genuine pleasure to drink, a "sensual" experience AND an intelluctual experience. And to think that some folks say that "Zinfandels can't age"!!
It should be noted the alcohol levels on all three of these wines.... well below 13%. I don't recall the wines being particularly big or tannic or acidic in their youth. Yet all three have lasted 25 plus yrs in very good shape, thank you. I don't suppose there good be anything to this "balance" thing when it comes to aging of wines, you suppose??