The Tom Hill Archives
Here are Tom's notes from June 22, 2003:
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The Tom Hill ArchivesHere are Tom's notes from June 22, 2003: Hospice Du Rhone Trip 2003 |
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Day 1
After a leasurely drive up the coast from my Ontario flight, check into my motel and then head down to the WineCask. Despite my best intentions, wind up buy a case to have shipped home. Take a look at the menu and weaken, so make a late dinner reservation. Along with my Roasted Tomato & Basil Soup, Duck Confit & Baby Spinach Saled, and Fire- Roasted Vegetables w/ Mashed Potato Beggar's Purse, I have:
The Melville has the wonderful peppery/cracked black pepper character that seems to come with cold-climate Syrah. As the wine breathes in the glass or an opened btl, the pepper character becomes much more intense. It's a terrific Syrah vnyd. And then we go to the barrels to taste a few of the 2002's:
As Carole Meredith pointed out in her talk, the Estrella Clone is not really a clone (it did not evolve from the single cutting from a single vine) but is really the Estrella selection that Gary Eberle harvested from the UC/Davis experimental vnyd in Davis. Craig Jaffurs wines continue to be big favorites with my tasting group. They are very well- crafted wines, from outstanding vnyds, and continue to be reasonably priced. We then bid adieu to Craig, head off into the sunset to reconvene later that afternoon at Bernie Roth's home. With all these educated palates from NewMexico in SantaBarbara, Bernie wanted to take the opportunity to learn at the feet of the masters, so he volunteered his home for a tasting late that afternoon afore our dinner at Downey's. The theme was to be Weird Varietals, or Varietals of the Beaten Path. It was done double-blind. Bernie made a cheese fondue, which was a subtle (very subtle) hint at one of his wines. With food in the offing, Laura condescended to join us. In addition to Bernie & Sam, Larry Archibald and Howard & Rhoda Sherry participated. We all brought the mystery wines for this tasting, which Sam & Laura ordered and bagged. The wines:
I'm sure Bernie set up this tasting in a blatant attempt to wrest the Iron Wino crown from my head. Alas, he failed miserably. That night, we all ajourned to Downey's restaurant for dinner. The theme was Venerable Wines. This suggestion prompted a prolonged e-debate between Howard & Bernie about what, exactly, constituted a "venerable" wine. The wines were:
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Day Two
Up bright & early the next day for more fencing drills. Using the fence at the back end of the motel (talk about "easy target") for my point control drills, it'd give out a nice/resounding thump every so often if I misjudged my distance. Finally this little old lady comes out onto the back porch of the house behind the motel to see what the racket is all about and apparently decides it's not a good idea to mess w/ a guy with a sword, so returns inside. I figure she went to call the police, so end my workout. After my morning espresso, head up to our morning appointment at Melville Wnry. I've been following their wines from the very start, so figure I ought to do a visit. Joining me is Larry Archibald (Laura once again scorns our company) and Howard&Rhoda Sherry. Hosting us is Chad Melville.
After we complete our visit with Chad, we journey back towards Buelton and stop at Peter & Becky Work's home/vnyd for a light lunch of chips & dips. Howard & Rhoda had not yet visited their property. Joining us is Don Schroder, their son and winemaker at Lucas and Lewellen Wnry, and, eventually, the Work's winery. We sit out on the patio, try their new Syrah and Syrach blend, and get Larry, Howard&Rhoda caught up on what they're doing at their vnyd. They have a name change in the works. It will no longer be the Wine@Work name, but The Work's. Peter & Becky felt that would be a bit less confusing than the former name. After having lunch, we all head down to Buelton and the SantaRitaHills tour organized for the afternoon by Peter Cargasacchi. We meet up at Wes Hagen's & Brian Loring's space there in Andy Kahn's wnry. Hotter than blazes outside, it is. There is already a crowd of WCWN folks tasting thru the wines there of Peter, Wes Hagen, Brian Loring's. The wines started coming at me pretty fast & furious, so I gave up taking notes.... totally out of character... and focusing on their SantaRitaHills character. But there was one wine that absolutely knocked my socks off:
With Peter in the lead, the crazy caravan heads west out to Babcock Vineyard. Brian Babcock then barrel samples on a variety of wines he's making there, including the Cargasacchi Pinot (stunning/extracted Pinot). Peter than leads the group out into the vnyd for a tour. I stay behind, visit a bit w/ Brian about long-time mutual friends, and avoid the blazing heat by relaxing in the shade and chatting w/ other WCWN folks who similarily eschewed the tour. We then head off to the west towards to the visit Peter has arranged w/ Cris Curran of SeaSmoke Wnry; located there in the wine ghetto w/ Stolpman, Longoria, and a few others. The SeaSmoke label is just coming on-line and her Chard (tiny quality) and Pinots and Syrah are mightly impressive wines. Again, alas, no notes. But hers is definitely a winery worth following. After finishing our visit with Chris, Larry heads off into the sunset and I head on up the road to LosAlamos where I'll be staying that night Chez Senn. Also there is John Hardman (RhoneRanger's exec director), on his way down to judge in the Orange County Fair. That night, Peter has organized dinner of SantaMaria Tri-Tip at Charlie's, a funky/down-home restaurant there in LosAlamos within walking distance of Bob's (thank goodness for that!!). Not sure who all was there (no... it wasn't THAT bad!!), but it included John Tomasso, Andy Abramson, Peter Cargasacchi, Jim Ontiveros (grower of Pinot for Brian Loring and others), Peter & Becky Work, Larry Archibald and Laura Chancellor (hmmmmm... food in the offing... Laura shows up....hmmmmm??). The food was simple & homey, the company non-paril, and the wines world-class:
The two Cargasacchi wines are two wines Peter made over at Wes Hagen's space in Buelton. The Jalama Vineyard is his vnyd planted (mostly?) to Syrah further to the west of his primary Pinot vnyd. Peter's not sure the soil is best suited for Syrah and he apparently has trouble getting the grapes to ripen. To step his toe into the winemaking field, he bought Syrah from the FrenchCamp vnyd up in eastside Paso; not particularly a great Syrah vnyd. Not sure what the Jalama vnyd contributed to the first wine, but it seemed pretty dominated by that mushroomy FrenchCamp character. The second wine w/ the SantaYnez Cab, was, to me, a much more interesting wine. It'll be interesting to see if Peter can coax from Jalama the quality of fruit that seems to come naturally from his Pinot vnyd. But we CAN say..."we've followed 'em from the very start!! As usual, we shut down the restaurant. Charlie had set our table up out on the open-air back patio and I'm sure the racket we were making kept that entire end of LosAlamos awake to all hours. With no corkage being charged, our bill came to slightly over $12/person... incredibly cheap for a wine dinner I must say. We wandered out into the night; Bob, John, & I walking the few blocks over to Chez Senn, Peter sleeping under his truck again, and the rest off to their various homes. Day Three Up not so early to the aroma of Bob Senn's coffee.... badly needed by all of us this morning. Visit a bit w/ John Hardman and Bob and then head on up the highway towards Paso. Stop again in SanLuisObispo for a double espresso and then onto Paso over the La Questa Grade (will they EVER finish this construction??). Stop first thing at Alloro to drop off my wines for that night's dinner, then on over (in blazing heat) to the winemaker's luncheon, the HdR kickoff event, at Cris Cherry's Villa Creek restaurant. The winemaker's lunch is one of my favorite events at HdR. A bunch of the winemakers get together for lunch at VillaCreek, a few interesting wines are often brought out, we have lunch and then we do a blind judging of Syrahs of a certain year. It kinda like a family reunion. Many of the winemakers haven't seen each other since the previous yr's HdR. There's a lot of catching up on news and family. New people are introduced. Just a really nice get-together of good friends. As usual, I sat w/ Bob Lindquist. I usually try to bring something I know will interest him. Also at the table was Signe, winemaker at Meridian (who had to leave early to go back and taste a gadzillion Chards.... real work), Chuck Carlson (Curtis Wnry), Dave Corey (Core Wnry), and Eric Baugher (Ridge). With lunch, we had:
After the wines are revealed, I go back and taste a few. Confirm that the LaCrema was, indeed, as great as I first thought, blind. Visit a bit longer w/ a few of the winemakers, then head on down to Templeton to check into The Country House Inn, my abode of choice whilst I'm in Paso. Visit a bit w/ owner Diane Garth and her son, Skyler. He's a really neat kid, strong in basketball and tennis. This past yr, he finally passed his Mom in heighth, which he was quick to point out. Shoot a few hoops in the blazing heat, soak a few labels, then head off to my 6:00pm dinner at Fabrizio's Alloro. We (of course) receive the power table right in the window area. In addition to Larry & Laura (food's here... so she DOES show up), we are joined by Dan & Eileen O'Grady. Dan retired last Fall from Smith&Boucher, the engineering firm in KansasCity for which my daughter works, and moved to Atascadero. When Becca was seeking a wine-related retirement gift for Dan, I suggested they buy he & Eileen a ticket to the HdR Grand Tasting on Saturday and a weekend stay at the JustInn. One of the more unique retirement gifts they had ever given. Vicki made up a nice HdR certificate for them to present at his retirement. I also threw in a personally guided tour of the Grand Tasting venue and intros to a few of my favorite winemakers. Since I had never met Dan & Eileen, I thought dinner at Alloro would be a good way to meet them. And it was. Primarily for Fabrizio, I took a bunch of my older Calif Italian varietals. They were: Montevina SpecialSelect Barbera 1976; Montevina Barbera 1979, MartinBros Calif Nebbiolo 1982 (their first Nebb, made from CentralVlly grapes), MontereyPeninsula Calif Barbera PleasantHill Vineyard 1983, and Eberle PasoRobles Barbera Norman Vineyard 1992. Alas, all of the wines were pretty much DOA; washed out, old/tired, no fruit, tannic&astringent. After we hit the 3'rd dead wine; Dan decided to order his own glass of the J.Lohr SevenOaks Cab, probably the best red wine of the night at our table. Finally, Fabrizio took pity on my miserable selection of wines and brought out a Fratelli Perata Paso Robles Nebbiolo 1990. It was far better, with a bit of dried rose-petal and a smokey/pungent/licorice character; but also seemed to be fading a bit. We also tried two Barbarescos that Howard&Rhoda left there from their dinner the night before. Fabrizio took wonderful care of our table, didn't make fun of my for my miserable selection of wines, and was definitely the host with the most. The food.... rustic peasant Italian fare and absolutely first rate. One of the most stunning things was the cheese on the Insalada Caprese. It was Burratta made in Calif by the guy down in Gardena who make the Bubalus Bubalis, the water-buffalo mozzarella. A very fragile cheese, it's a bag-sorta of his mozzarella filled in the center w/ his own mascarpone. A killer cheese. Also here at Alloro that night was the WCWN off-line. So there was a continual stream of friends from that table, often w/ a bottle in their hand for me to try, over to our table. It was obvious, wine-wise, that we were sitting at the wrong table, based on what I tasted of these visitor btls. Gather up my empties for the labels, bid adieu to Don & Eileen, Larry&Laura, and head back to The Country House Inn and crash. TomHill
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