Help Me Understand a Wine Critic: Tom Hill

WINE TALK
21

Why on earth has “missouri outhouse” not made critic bingo?

22

Who here tried the Turley “Smoot-Hawley” vineyard white zin before Tom posted a TN on it? No one, that’s who.

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23

Tom has expanded my knowledge of wine more than any other source I have come across in my journey to becoming a wino. On top of this he is a true gentleman and was very friendly and open the one time I met him in person years ago at a Rhone Rangers tasting when I spotted his signature dump bucket and introduced myself. He may say his posts are long/short and boring but rarely are. The BP are an incredible source of info and history. [cheers.gif]

24

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25

That weirdo uses more slashes than Michael Myers.

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26

Oh, I agree. I just thought if all of the other big-time critics had their own thread, then Tom should too champagne.gif !

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27

Capo di tutti capi he is.

28

Very true, Sean. Lest anyone think I was picking on Tom, we’ve shared wine before and traded tasting notes and jokes online longer than either of us probably want to admit. [cheers.gif]

29

Mr. Hill’s spittoon at tastings is something to behold. I wonder if he holds a patent?

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30

#LongBoring? [wink.gif]

31

It does stand out in a crowd!!
It’s available from CampMor and is a dual-use utensil for pilots of small aircraft flying cross-country and who don’t care for the blowback of
peeing out the window.
I can’t use the alternative usage, though. Too small I tell folks!!
Tom

32

Sorry, Dave… Smoot-Hawley was a tariff act that caused a lot of damage to the US economy.
It was the Turley Hoot-Smalley White Zin that you were thinking about. It was a legend in its time.

This TN, originally posted to Alt.Food.Wine, has the price garbled because it was going thru the USB cable connected to my punched card reader.
In the original TN, it was priced at $56.00. When TomStevenson was researching his book on Calif wine, he visited PaulDraper for a day. Paul gave him his “TomHill” file of TN’s
and he saw the TN in there on Hoot-Smalley White Zin. In his book, he labeled this wine as the most expensive White Zin ever made. Look it up, as they say. I eventually sent him an e-mail explaining it
was a joke to see if anybody was reading my TN’s. Like now, very few folks read my TN’s and picked up on it. Stevenson got a real laugh over being spoofed.
You’ll notice that the original TN had a real paucity of /////'s. Now they have many more ////'s to improve their readability.
Anyway…one of the WineWorld’s Urban Legends. Now you know the rest of the story.
Tom

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33

Is it weird I skip to the pulpit before reading the tasting note?

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34

I often do this too. I find it helps in giving more context to the wines tasted.

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35

Absolutely not, Josh. The TN’s are short & boring and just mostly boring descriptors, with the last few phrases that tell how much I liked/disliked the wine.
But the BP is the meat of my TN’s, puts things in context, and usually gives some historical background. Who knows, some of it may even be true!!
Tom

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36

After the Tasting note was published, the wine clearly sold out quickly as you couldn’t find a bottle anywhere. Clearly still one of the super cult wines as its still impossible to find anywhere.

37

I didn’t know Tom was a personality. I just thought his TNs were boring, but not particularly short.

38

Somewhere buried deep in this forum I once expressed an odd desire to tour wine regions with Tom while driving a Ford Squire wagon. I still hold onto that dream.
62930CF3-23DE-4251-A336-7E56419602A0.jpeg

39

The original unicorn. Rumor has it Rudy once came upon a stash behind a bricked-up cellar wall in Paris, but that was never confirmed.

40

In my mind it would be more like this :
images.jpeg-4.jpg

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