The staff at Rue de Main in Hayward had set it all up and we had our usual room (only this time we had ALL of it) with the big mural of a Paris street. A few of us were a bit surprised that they served spicy sausage bits at the outset, and it took a few minutes for the heat to die down so that we could taste the first flight! 

The prices of these wines ranged from low-end to medium (under $30). 

The numbers at the end of each note represent number of votes for best of flight and / my own ranking. (13/4 for the Hahn Estates, for example, means that there were 13 votes for best of flight, but I ranked it fourth of flight). As with most tastings, opinions and flavors were all over the map. (Let folks post their OWN notes! These are mine, all MINE!!) 

FIRST FLIGHT 

1996 Hahn Estates, Santa Lucia Highlands 
Wonderful toasty/berry nose, but lightweight and overly fruity on the palate. 13/4 

1998 Pepperwood Grove, California 
Slight burnt rubber masking a solid berry smell (this improved in mere minutes). A medium-bodied wine with dark fruit flavors and green pepper. Very long finish. 0/2 

1997 Ravenswood, Sonoma County 
Nose slightly hot, peppery with plum and black currant (okay, okay... "cassis"). Bold (Birkenstocky?) tannins, a bit too much oak that tended to overpower the delicious fruit somewhat. 9/1 

1997 Ironstone, California 
Loads of alcohol and wood on the nose. Another overoaked, tongue-shrinkingly tannic and bitter wine that I would guess was made from inferior grapes. 0/3 

SECOND FLIGHT

1993 Richardson, Giles Vineyard, Sonoma 
I'd never heard of this one. Big, rich nose full of black cherry and plum. A bit sweet on the palate but otherwise nicely balanced. An inexpensive red, it turns out, that has a good Quality Price Ratio (QPR). (I overheard Linda Kemp say it had a tomato-paste-based flavor, which I didn't get, but thought it interesting enough to write down...) 4/2 

1997 Nelson Estate, Sonoma County 
The complexity of this wine is apparent in the nose. Tight structure wafts from the glass, with black pepper, plum, cassis, blackberry, and something vaguely sour (but just a hint). This one is still a bit young and need of more time, but this is a Real Wine that should be paired with flavorful foods, but nothing too heavy. (Grilled beef or chicken would do, but I was thinking of grilled chicken and grilled veggie "wraps" when I drank this wine.) Very nice indeed. 14/1 

1996 Villa Mt. Eden, California 
Nose closed and hot at the same time, with a bit of cedar. Heat continues on the tongue, cedar changes to heavy new oak on the palate, dark fruit flavors overwhelmed by wood and alcohol. 3/3 

1996 Fenestra, Santa Lucia Highlands 
Another cedar/oak nose with vague, poorly-defined fruit odors. Flavors are off...not much in the mid-palate, but there is more wood and there is some plum-skin tartness out of balance with the fruit. 1/4 

THIRD FLIGHT

1994 Rombauer, Napa Valley
Enamal paint/chemical nose. The attack is all heat, followed by briary, oaky flavors, then finally some rather nice fruit of blackberry and sour cherry. 6/2 

1997 Casa Nueva, Napa Valley 
Winalski would HATE this wine... menthol/eucalyptus and cedar on the nose. Better on the palate, though the menthol seems to reappear in the finish. Middle a bit hollow, a bit flabby for such a menthol-y nose, soft fruit...not much there. Again, over-oaked. (Sigh) 5/3 

1996 Reverie, Napa Valley 
After all of the prior wines, expectations weren't high. But... a GORGEOUS nose full of heady fruit (I'd have taken it for a good cabernet sauvignon) and tightly-knit spices, just a hint of oak (just right), and I kept smelling it for awhile before tasting. (This is one of those wines that if I'd been given a pour in a tasting room, I'd go off in a corner to smell it for awhile by myself...). Flavors match the nose on this one. Balanced on a point of a needle, restrained and yet friendly, reserved and yet forward. Complex, delicious, flavors of ripe boysenberry, juicy plum and cassis with undercurrents of mild tobacco that help its underpinnings. DEFINITELY my favorite of the evening. 10/1 

1995 Thierry Germain-Marginale, Saumur Champigny (Loire) 
Cigar box odors, bit of wet leather and sweaty dog. Changed over five minutes in the glass and improved; revealed some milk chocolate once it opened up, but fruit is compromised and there isn't much there. Not well balanced, nor complex. 0/4 

FOURTH FLIGHT

1997 Domain des Hardieres, Anjou Controlee
Unbuttered, slightly burned popcorn nose. Hard to get past that... Much better on palate with nice mouthfeel and nice dark chocolate with ripe berries, solid-but-not-unpleasant dose of oak. 9/2 

1997 Palmer, Long Island, New York 
(Disclaimer: I expected to hate this wine, given what I'd heard about it.) Odd, minerally nose, but not particularly awful; interesting spicyness with a watermelon and table grape smell. Tastes a lot like it smells; watermelon is persistent and minerally, steely-shale mix is muted behind some rather interesting, hard-to-describe fruit. I didn't hate it after all, but neither would I buy it. 0/3 

1995 Crescini, Santa Cruz Mountains
This was indescribably awful stuff. An industrial accident, or worse. I heard myself saying things like "Love Creek" and "Chernobyl" with respect to this "wine" (if that's what it was). Bleeeaugh. 1/4 (Our Japanese regular, Haruyuki "Harry" Kojimoam liked this one because it was "so different, unlike the others. Very unique.") 

1992 de Rose, Cardillo Vineyard, Cienega Valley (near Hollister) 
Latex paint, sour milk burned my smeller right off, but followed with ripe fruit smells. Flavors develop in the mouth and reveal a nicely-balanced, "drink me now" mature wine with moderate complexity and a short, but nice, finish. 10/1 
 

FIFTH (and final) FLIGHT

1993 Gundlach-Bundschu, Rhinefarm Vineyard, Sonoma Co. 
Not much of anything on the nose... perhaps over the hill? Flavors are weak, watery and soft. Low acid, low everything. 0/4 

1997 Thomas Coyne, El Dorado Co. 
(Disclaimer: Susan and I contributed this wine, but we didn't remember much about it since we'd only tasted it at the winery once.) Big, BIG nose full of fruity goodness that makes me salivate... Just as big on the palate but nicely balanced with a solid backbone of tart, plum-skin acidity. Juicy, lush fruitiness, just complex and structured enough to make it difficult to pick out individual fruit flavors (sorry). 17/1 

1991 Graeser, Napa Valley 
Non-descript, closed nose, bit of eucalyptus over blackberry jam smell. Fruit starting to drop out, but still there. Low acidity, high oak, not much there. 0/3 

1995 Chinon, "Joquet" (sp?) 
Slight odor of burnt rubber with odor of berries that are beginning to ferment. Soft, supple wine with low acidity but nice flavors of yellow plum and red cherry. Nice, but unexciting. 5/2 

SUMMARY
My number one pick of the night was the 1996 Reverie ($26.99) followed by the 1997 Nelson Estate ($22.99), with the 1997 Thomas Coyne (approx. $15) a surprising solid third place. 

-- Tom R.