95 Arroyo, Petite Sirah

Florida Jim

Florida Jim

Florida Jim
1995 Vincent Arroyo, Petite Sirah:
There isnt much fruit on the nose, rather elements of scorched earth, hickory smoke, asphalt, flowers and a very deep, dark-spice note; in the mouth its blackberry soda with accents from the nose, very grippy and just a little watery; moderate length, mouth-coating but pretty drying.
Here is one of those rarities the oak has integrated. But it also has altered the basic make-up of the wine and diminished the fruit. Nothing complex here (unless you count the number of different charred-wood manifestations) and although its not a bad wine, it says nothing about petite sirah and gives little reason to want more.
And once again, I am persuaded that there is simply no reason to cellar petite sirah; either I like it on release or I shouldnt buy it because its not going to change for the better.

Best, Jim
 
I think that the winemakers' approach to Petite Sirah changed in the early 1980s. Earlier renditions from the 1970s (Ridge, Freemark Abbey, Burgess, Stags' Leap Vineyards et al) seemed to embrace the variety's rusticity and were produced in a manner that enabled them to show evolution in the bottle. They reminded me of Italian wines from the lesser regions, the sorts of places in the south where harsh, tannic wines were the norm and people didn't really have anything better to do with their time but put away wine in the cellar to age for 10-20 years (meanwhile, they drank the wines that their parents put away 10-20 year previously.

The sea change occurred in the early 1980s when the latest batch of UC Davis graduates began applying their education and started approaching the variety as if it were a Bordeaux variety. Additional oak was the most obvious change, but experimentation with new yeasts and picking a lot riper led to softer, more supple (and more immediately approachable) wines. It also made the varietal less interesting of a candidate for cellaring, but sales increased and fewer old-vine Petite Sirah vineyards were ripped up or grafted over and the heritage continues.

I still have some of the wines from the 1970s but nobody I know has any interest at all in drinking them because they're so different from the modern versions (and it's not as if anyone is lining up to drink them either). The upshot is that the last time I bought a Petite Sirah was probably five years ago, and that was a couple of bottle of 1991 Foppiano that nobody else bid on and I picked up for about $10. Damn good wine at that price, but I'm not likely to spend $60+ for a bottle of Turley or Switchback Ridge PS any time soon.

-Eden (I still have a bottle of 1982 Stags' Leap Winery Petite Sirah with a Sam Francis label)
 
Brother Thor's rigid intransigence on this oh-so-trivial point of grammatical usage ought in no way interfere with my chances of drinking well-aged petite sirah, yes?

Sometimes being right isn't what's important.
 
Will you be tasting them double-blind, or Chris Coad's wine-only version of double-blind?

Oh, hell, and I just love petite sirah.
 
Eden
The only older ones I have tasted have been Ridge and they were certainly evidence that the grape can age and develop.
Elsewhere I was informed that 18-20 years aging makes a difference even in some of the modern day versions. If a bottle cost $.10 I wouldn't buy it if it had to go two decades.
OTOH, I'm going to try that trick about passing on some aged wines for my daughter. I just don't think this is the grape I start with.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Chris Coad:
Girl, I will happily line up to drink your well-aged petite sirah. Where does the queue start?
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Are you heading west at all in the near future? Let me know a couple of weeks in advance and I can exhume them from storage and we can do a Petite Sirah jeebus of some sort. I've probably got 6-8 bottles remaining from the main producers of the prime era of Petite Sirah. If there's not enough to go around, I can fill it out with some 70s Charbono and late harvest Zinfandels from Ridge, Mayacamas, and Carneros Creek. It could make for a truly memorable evening!

originally posted by Florida Jim:
The only older ones I have tasted have been Ridge and they were certainly evidence that the grape can age and develop.
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The 1974 and 1975 York Creek Petite Sirahs were likely the apogee of the winemaking in the category (although their Devil's Hill releases are formidable as well).

Elsewhere I was informed that 18-20 years aging makes a difference even in some of the modern day versions. If a bottle cost $.10 I wouldn't buy it if it had to go two decades.
Click to expand...

I shall assume that you didn't go long on 2000 Bordeaux or 2005 Burgundy...

OTOH, I'm going to try that trick about passing on some aged wines for my daughter. I just don't think this is the grape I start with.
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What better incentive do you need to entice you to pass along bottles to her that you wouldn't otherwise be interested in drinking? What if you became as thirsty as you are inspired toward the end and decided to exit as did Andre Tchelistcheff and Cyril Ray (or maybe it was Harry Waugh) with only a bottle or two remaining in the cellar. At least this way you'd have some sort of vinous legacy to pass down, even if it's something you wouldn't deign to drink yourself.

-Eden (at the rate I've been drinking lately there's going to be a whole lot left when I take that long walk off the short pier of life)
 
Eden,

I only have one bottle of petite sirah left in my cellar so the point is nearly moot. And, FWIW, I have one bottle of 2000 Bordeaux but two cases of 2005 Burgundy (almost all de Villaine).

But establishing a cellar to pass down has an appeal and, to that end, I have some Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire, Alsace and large formats that I intend to do that with. Then too, I hope to have several cases of my own stuff to pass along; maybe even some of them with my daughter's (and granddaughter's) name on them. Cuvee Jennifer, Cuvee Isobel (I know that one's been done but I don't think it will matter); they have a nice ring.

I like to imagine my daughter having dinner with friends and serving Cowan Cellars (she kept her last name so that would work), Cuvee Jennifer. A conversation starter, if nothing else.
Such are dreams . . .
Best, Jim
 
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