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Wine Details
Price:
$28.00 per bottle
Description:
The grapes were harvested in October, 1999 from the Rhodes Vineyard in Redwood Valley. We make Petite Sirah mainly for blending with Zinfandel as it provides color, spiciness and mid-palate. However in some years, such as 1999, the wine is so good that we have to bottle some of it on its own. This year, half of the grapes came from a 60 year old block of vines while the other half was from 5 year old vines propagated from cuttings off the older block. The must was fermented for 15 days in small fermentors using commercial yeast and natural yeast. Although tannin levels in the resulting wines were higher in the wine from the younger vines, the flavors were remarkably similar! It was aged 15 months in French and American oak (40 percent new) before bottling in March, 2001. This is a powerhouse wine that nevertheless has great finesse--our tasting room personnel like to describe it as ``velvet in the mouth''. The wine has deep, jammy black fruit and spice flavors and fine tannins that will enable this wine to mature for a number of years.
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Varietal Definition
Petite Sirah:
Petite Sirah is the same as the French variety known as Durif, a cross of Peloursin, with the true Syrah. A French nurseryman, Dr. François Durif, propagated the grape trying for resistance to powdery mildew and named it after himself, in the 1870s. Petite Sirah has long been an important blending grape, prized primarily for its deep color and fairly intense tannin. It is the variety most often chosen to blend into Zinfandel for added color, complexity, body, and to tone down the tendency of Zins toward "jammy" fruit.
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Zinfandel:
Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California wine vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in the 'heel' of Italy. It is typically made into a robust red wine. Its taste depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruits like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas such as the Napa Valley, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas such as Sonoma County. Many Zinfandels come from head pruned ‘Old Vines’. ‘Old Vine’ is generally understood to mean a vine that is more than 50 years old and that produces less than three tons per acre. ‘Head Pruning’ is an old European style of pruning that trains the vine into the shape of a goblet. It requires no wires or other complex trellis systems. Head pruning spreads the fruit uniformly along the vine and allows light penetration.In the USA a semi-sweet Rosé (blush-style) wine called ‘White Zinfandel’ has achieved widespread popularity. In fact, this popularity has so outstripped all other forms that many fans think there is actually a grape called “White Zinfandel” (there isn’t)!
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