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The Tom Hill Archives

The Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium presents the musings and reflections of Tom Hill. We think it's great that Tom, who has sampled so many wines, has shared his tasting notes with us. We do have, or have had for sale a few of the wines Tom writes about, and we include a link to our stock page whenever it is a producer we carry (but since the stock page is kept up-to-date and the wines are sold, don't expect any but the newest of wines to show up in our stock!). Mostly though, since we specialize in County of Santa Barbara Wine and Central Coast Wine, we don't carry a lot of the wines Tom writes about. But we think it is important that you be able to have an idea what they're like in case you are planning to buy some somewhere, or have them in your own collection. Enjoy.

Here are Tom's notes from December 8, 1999:

Navarro Winery Releases

Tasted last week some new Navarro Winery releases:
  1. Navarro Anderson Valley Pinot Gris (13.4%; RS: 0.39%) '98: Med.gold color; fragrant PG bit smokey/almondy/perfumed ripe nose; rich textured oily/smokey/spicy/PG floral flavor; long rich/textured/oily fragrant/floral/smokey/almondy/marzipan finish; a rather Alsatian-style PG w/ lots of richness & texture; a lovely well-made/tasty white far better than any Calif PinotGrigio.
  2. Navarro Mendocino Chenin Blanc (13.1%; RS: 0.48%) '98: Light yellow color; pleasant spicy clean CB light pear nose; bit metallic simple/fragrant CB/pear flavor; med.short soft ripe pear/ CB finish; a pleasant simple quaffable CB at a good price. $9.50
  3. Navarro Estate Gewurztraminer (13.6%; RS: 0.48%) '98: Med.gold color; very fragrant/spicy/cinnamon/ cloves aromatic/Gewurztraminer/lychee nose; off-dry soft spicy/floral/lychee/Gewurztraminer clean bit cinammon/ clove flavor; med.long spicy/floral/Gewurztraminer/lychee bit cinammon finish; would like it a bit leaner & drier but a very nicely-made near-Alsatian-style Gewurztraminer.
  4. Navarro Cuvee Traditional Dry Anderson Mendocino Gewurztraminer (13.1%) '90: Med.gold color; rather strong/piney/PineSol bit spicy/complex/cinammon bit dusty/wet pavement slight oxidized nose; dry lean/tart/bit metallic light dusty/wet pavement rather piney/PineSol low fruit/ spicy flavor; med.short rather piney/PineSol dusty/wet pavement bit spicy/Gewurztraminer slight oxidized finish; time has not been kind to this wine but some interesting things therein; nose becomes very petrol/old Riesling/piney as it warms. $nc (Larry's mystery wine)
  5. Navarro Cuvee 128 Mendocino Sauvignon Blanc (13.3%; RS: 0.3%) '98: Light yellow color; very fragrant/spicy/SB light herbal rather grapefruity nose; off-dry floral/spicy/SB/light herbal/ earthy tart quite grapefruity flavor; med.short tart spicy/herbal/SB grapefruity bit metallic finish; a bit too K-J'd for me but a pleasant clean simple SB.
  6. Navarro Chardonnay Table Wine (13.2%; RS:0.45%!!) '98: Light gold color; fragrant appley/ cinammon/cloves/apple pie almost Muscat-like fragrance; soft appley/apple pie/spicy fragrant/ Chard flavor; med.short spicy/apple pie/Chard simple finish; a simple pleasant Chard that blows away the K-J or Fetzer Sundial, at a great price. $8.08
  7. Navarro Chardonnay Mendocino (13.4%) '97: Med.gold color; loght toast/oak ripe appley some fragrant/pineapply nose; tart ripe fairly rich/textured spicy/appley/pineappley light toasty/ pungent/oak flavor; med.long light toasty/oak spicy/appley/pineapply/Chard finish; very nicely done Chard at a good price. $13.50
  8. Navarro Anderson Valley Premier Reserve Chardonnay (13.6%) '97: Very strong corked/musty nose; soft very strong musty/corked some toasty/smokey/pungent flavor; much too corked to tell anything.
  9. Navarro Mendocino Pinot Noir (13.8%) '97: Very light red color; fragrant spicy/cherry/PN lots of fruit light cinammon/spicy/oak some smoked hot dog nose; tart spicy smoked hot dog/spicy very fruity/cherry/black cherry bit dusty/earthy flavor; med.long smoked/hot dog/pungent bright cherry/dusty finish w/ light tannins; very nice forward-drinking PN at a good price. $13.50
  10. Navarro Pinot Noir Method a l'Ancienne Anderson Valley '96: Med.light color; deep toasty/oaked/ Burgundian bit smokey/charred very fragrant/perfumed/black cherry complex nose; fairly rich/ smokey/pungent/toasty lots of deep/black cherry fruit spicy/dusty/complex flavor; very long ripe/black cherry/dusty/spicy some toasty/charred/pungent finish w/ some tannins; needs several yrs; very good Anderson Valley PN in a Burgundian style. $25.00
  11. Navarro Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Deep End Blend (13.9%) '97: Med.color; deep dusty toasted/oak smokey very spicy/black cherry some complex nose; strong very spicy/black cherry strong pungent/toasty/oaked/smokey complex flavor; very long pungent/toasty/charred/oak very spicy/ black cherry dusty/complex finish w/ fair tannins; needs a yr or two; much like the M a'lA but a bit more deep/black cherry/Pinot fruit.
  12. Navarro Mendocino Cabernet Sauvignon '93: Very dark color; very strong herbal/earthy/dusty low fruit bit toasty/oak nose; tart earthy/dusty rather strong herbal/Cab some toasty/charred oak flavor; fairly long herbal tart earthy/dusty charred/toasty/oak finish w/ some tannins; still needs some age but a rather herbal/hard sort of Cab.
  13. Navarro Mendocino Zinfandel (15.4%) '94: Very dark color; strong oaked/toasty/cinammon rather smoked/hot dog some dusty/blackberry nose; tart rich blackberry/tarry/earthy very blackberry smokey almost Languedoc-like flavor; long dusty/tarry/blackberry some toasty/charred/oak finish w/ some tannins; still needs another 2-5 yrs; best Navarro Zin I've ever had.
  14. Navarro Mendocino Zin (14.6%) '97: Med.color; bright raspberry/blackberry bit toasty/oaked some earthy nose; light spicy/raspberry/blackberry light toasty/oaked earthy/dusty flavor; med.short spicy/raspberry/blackberry light toasty/oak dusty finish w/ light tannins; a pleasant light rather underwhelming Zin.
  15. Navarro Anderson Valley Gewurztraminer Late Harvest (11.1%; RS: 7.1%) '98: Med.gold color; strong botrytis/peachy/apricotty very grapey/lychee/very ripe nose; tart strong lychee/Gewurztraminer some peachy/botrytis very ripe grape lots of fruit fairly sweet flavor; very long very ripe fruit/ lychee/Gewurztraminer some peachy/apricotty/botrytis finish; loads of ripe Gewurztraminer fruit w/ a light hit of botrytis; a steal for this price. $9.98/hlf
  16. Navarro White Riesling Cluster Select Late Harvest Andeson Vlly (SaH: 43.1Brix; 10.0%; RS: 28%; TA: 11.4 g/l) '97: Dark gold color; very strong/intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty very honeyed slight EA/volatile pineapply nose; clean very rich/sweet tart intense peachy/ botrytis/apricotty bit earthy flavor; very long lingering very intense peachy/botrytis/ apricotty tart finish; incredible/intense TBA that will age forever. $40.50
And the usual mumblings from the bloody pulpit:
  1. Navarro & Alsace: To my judgement, Navarro probably does the best job of anyone in Calif in making Alsatian Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Gris. Too many times, most wineries leave too much residual sugar. Navarro seems a bit more restrained along that line, but still they often have a bit too much Kendall-Jacksonized character to them. Even so, alas, they still don't hold a candle to a half-way decent Alsatian Gewurztraminer or Riesling. If I want good Alsatian-style white wine from Calif, I go to..... Viognier or Roussanne!!
  2. Navarro Reds: The Anderson Valley is one of the very most special sites in Calif for Pinot. They often have a lot of bright cherry fruit that reminds me a lot of Oregon Pinots. The Navarro versions of this variety are consistently among the finest from the Anderson Valley, usually made in a rather Burgundian style w/ a fair amount of toasty/charred oak. That being said, I am pretty underwhelmed by the other Navarro reds. They are usually nicely done wines, but not nearly of the same class of their Pinots. The taste like red wines made by a Pinot producer. I would like to see a bit more depth and extraction in them.
  3. Navarro Stickies: When it comes to sweet wines, hardly anyone in Calif does it better; at a better price, and with more consistency, than Ted & Deborah. Nooooone!! The LateHrvest ones, where the botrytis often plays a minor role, are just about the best of that genre in Calif. But when it comes to BA/TBA-style wines; Navarro is the one. They tend to have much more acidity than many of the other Calif analogs, which makes them age longer. The tend to be cleaner, w/ less VA, than most of the others. And always fairly priced.
  4. Anderson Valley Cabernet: Since the Anderson Valley is usually regarded as prime Pinot country; most folks tend to dismiss it as an area for good/great Cabernets. The Navarro Cabs I've had would tend to support this assertion. However, back in the late '70's, Jed Steele, when he was at Edmeades, made a few absolutely stunning Cabs, from Ciapusci and DuPratt Cabernet grapes; several of which were bottled under Corti Reserve labels. They were as fine a Cabernet as any I've had in all of California, in an elegant style.
  5. Howard & Rhoda Sherry, whose cellar is 74.39% made up of Navarro wines, provided the wines for this tasting and do an exemplary job of keeping our SantaFe and LosAlamos wine groups exposed/supplied w/ Navarro wines. Ted Bennett & Deborah Cahn couldn't have better (unpaid) spokespeople for their wines in the world!!
TomHill

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