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Petite Sirah, Santa Barbara County

Petite Sirah, Santa Barbara County Wine Details
Price: $34.00 per bottle

Description: Like that crew cab super duty turbodiesel 4x4 pickup truck confidently rolling into the parking lot, this vineyard designate Petite Sirah from Eric Caldwell's La Presa vineyard is big, bold, American, and proud of it. But just as you're struck by the majesty of it all, an equally confident but petite and refined woman steps down from the cab and catches your surprised and admiring look as you glance away. And so with this wine, the initially bold mind and mouth filling berry flavors give way to a firm but refined palate of smooth tannins and other complexities of taste and texture taking you somewhere into the unexpected. The depth of flavor and cling-to-the-glass consistency make this the heavy hitter of the day and a rewarding exercise for the senses of the unafraid. It's hard not to smile and you look back down into the glass and desperately hope she likes purple teeth.

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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