PS I Love You

A number of wine varieties that aren't in America's top ten favorites are called misunderstood. Petite Sirah has been around "forever" on the American wine scene, but never terribly popular. Why? It's a misunderstood wine.

The Petite Sirah name

Here's the first problem as there's nothing "petite" about the taste of Petite Sirah and, as you can see, Sirah isn't even spelled like Syrah. It is related to, but it is not the same as Syrah. The size of the grapes is quite small hence the petite.

Petite Sirah history

In the late 19th century a Frenchman named Durif crossed Syrah and the obscure Peloursin grape and named it after himself. When it was imported to America a few years later it got the Petite Sirah name. It became very popular in California, in places like Napa and Sonoma counties. At the turn of the 20th century it made it's way to Australia.

Petite Sirah as a blending grape

Tannins in wines come from the skins (and can also come from the seeds). Since Petite Sirah grapes are so small they have a higher skin to juice ratio leading to more tannins. It became very popular for its dark purple color and tannic backbone where it could add structure to lighter weight wines. It was often blended into Zinfandel to mellow out the overt fruitiness.

Not for the faint-hearted  

Growers and winemakers need to manage those tannins otherwise you come out with a wine that will suck the moisture right out of your mouth. Think black tea where you leave the tea bag in your cup all day then try to drink it (the dryness in black tea is from tannins). This is especially true of those making 100% Petite.

The Petite Sirah fan club

One of many great
Dry Creek Petite Sirahs

The Petite Sirah fan club, PS I Love You, came along well before the movie. You can learn more about the grape here and they have a long list of food recommendations. I usually think of Petite Sirah with hearty beefy meals, but they cover salads to seafood to vegetarian.

Areas in California to find PS

The best known areas for Petite Sirah are Sonoma County, especially Dry Creek Valley, and Lodi. Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Lodi have quite a lot of old vine Petite Sirah. By acreage most is in the Central Valley primarily used to blend in jug wines (Lodi & Clarksburg are exceptions). San Luis Obispo County on the central coast grows a lot of PS.

Wineries known for their PS

A few Sonoma County wineries for Petite Sirah are Carol Shelton, Foppiano, Francis Ford Coppola, and Trentadue, but there are dozens and dozens of others. In Napa there is Biale and Frank Family plus many others.
A good "starter" PS (based on a low price, good quality) would be Bogle from the Clarksburg area or Parducci from Mendocino County.

Do Tasting Notes Help?

You might see tasting notes on the back of a wine bottle, maybe on a little card on the shelf in the store, or full tasting write-ups in wine magazines or online. How much do these actually help?

Inexpensive Eats in Sonoma County

  While visiting you'll want to explore some of the top-notch food that Sonoma County is blessed with, but perhaps either your stomach or your wallet might want something simple once in awhile. Simple and less expensive can still mean good.

Things You Only See in Wine Country (humor)

The weird, the unusual, the what the hell were they thinking in commercial entities. Most are in Napa. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

The Changing American Wine Industry

Big changes may be happening with the American wine business.

Young People Buying Wine (humor)

What kind of wine with my Taco Bell take-out? Here's your answer!  (It's Merlot).

YouTube video

 

New Tasting Rooms in Sonoma County

Would you like to visit some newer places and maybe discover some new favorite wines? Heck, maybe you just wanna get out of the house and do anything! Here are some recent additions to Sonoma County wine tasting. I haven't visited any yet as I've been, you know, at home.

Is Aged Wine Better?

There a many fallacies surrounding wine and how it's presented to you. Things like wines with corks are better than ones with screw caps or a wine in a heavier glass bottle is somehow better than a lighter weight one.

One of the biggest surrounds aging wine. These are some blanket statements used with wine that are false.

Starting a Wine Collection

So you may be thinking you should actually plan for a selection of wines to drink at a later date rather than just have a few miscellaneous bottles laying around. Most people will start with a couple dozen bottles on a small rack or put away in wine cartons in a closet. Once the wine collection gets bigger than this a little more thought and planning are required.

Missing Barrel Tasting This Year?

  The Wine Road's Barrel Tasting event, usually the first two weekends of March, is another victim to the pandemic. Yes, it's such a popular event it takes two weekends! The barrel tasting is a chance to try wines right out of the barrel before they are ready for bottling.

  For 2021 several wineries are participating in a very unique event where they pull wines out of their libraries so rather than sampling a 2020 wine you might be tasting something from 2011.

  It's all done the first weekend of March, in their outdoor tasting areas, with regular tasting fees, and following the Covid safety protocols.

  The event from Sonomamag.com

Wine in Single Serving Cans

The Feds in the TTB agency control all things alcohol. They recently ruled to allow small single serving packaging of wine to be sold individually. This means you'll see single cans of wine being sold by wineries in sizes such as 250 ml (about 8 fl. oz.).

In the past you could buy small cans in 4-packs. Maybe now we'll see something other than, you know, pink Barefoot in cans. Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris should be very popular next summer. Having some cans of red table wines or Pinot Noir around would be okay, too.

The caveat is a possible shortage of aluminum cans. With first the craft beer industry switching largely to cans and then hard seltzer's popularity there has been a big increase in demand.

This Might Change Alcohol Advertising

 A big shift in the American alcohol industry.

Will you soon see an ad with a group of women drinking Bud while watching TV? Probably not, but for seltzer, wine, and some spirits you may see more ads directed towards female consumers.

Click on to enlarge