Three Sirahs that are far from Petite
Dec 11th, 2007 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Wine | Comments | 7 Comments |
So I was perusing the food event site Is My Blog Burning? and saw there was a petite sirah tasting shindig. Well I typically drink Italian and Spanish varieties, but I’d tasted a few nice petite sirahs lately, most notably one from Napa’s Quixote winery. That remains my favorite, but $60 a bottle is a little out of my price range.
So I stayed closer to home and chose three local petite sirahs. I had heard that the Delta was an excellent region for this varietal, and I’d tried Bogle’s petite and liked it. But that’s a mass-produced wine, so I wanted to find something a bit smaller. I found Ehrhardt’s petite sirah from Clarksburg, then a petite sirah from a vineyard a friend grows grapes for in the Sierra Foothills — Calaveras County’s Twisted Oak. I wanted a Lodi petite, so I asked a friend who knows that town for a recommendation: He suggested Earthquake’s petite sirah.
The Ehrhardt’s is a 2003, the Earthquake a 2004 and the Twisted Oak a 2005. Here’s how they break down to this guy’s palate:
- While none of the wines were terrible, I’m not a fan of the Earthquake. At 15.5 percent alcohol, it was hot, heavy, jammy, and overly fruity. They advertise “bold tannins,” but that’s a lie. There was almost no real tannin action going on. It was all fruit, all alcohol and all sweetness. It tasted like it has a fair bit of residual sugar. Basically, this is a painted lady of a wine: She looks good at first glance, but you can tell she’s overly engineered.
- Next up was the Ehrhardt. I like this wine. It’s probably the petite sirah closest to type of the trio. Soft, plummy, with a big nose but a balance in the mouth that just tasted nice. I got some felty tannins, but nothing like the Spanish wines I typically drink. At 14.1 percent alcohol, it just felt more balanced. I’d buy this one again.
- Last — and best — is the Twisted Oak. It was the most tannic of the trio, the driest and the one that tasted more like what I call wine. It made me feel a little like I was drinking a “nueva expresion” Rioja, where the Ehrhardt was definitely a Calfornia wine and the Earthquake was definitely a Lodi wine. The Twisted Oak was the lightest in color of the three and had a fruity aroma; not as big as the Ehrhardt, but present nonetheless. (All the Earthquake smelled like was alcohol.)
Bottom line: At $21, the Ehrhardt is just about worth the money. At $28, the Earthquake is overpriced and overwrought. And at $24, I’m on the fence about the Twisted Oak. I happily pay that kind of coin for their Spanish-style wines, but I guess I am not so fond of petite sirah that I feel comfy spending more than $20 for a bottle. After all, for a few dollars more, I can get a Rioja Riserva or even a decent Brunello or Barbaresco.
UPDATE: Sonadora over at Wannabe Wino, who hosted this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, has an excellent roundup of reviews on many, many other Petite Sirahs, including many from the Lodi-Sierra Foothills-Delta region…
Dear lord, I loved that Quixote wine… *sigh*
Cute post title btw.
Thanks for participating. I’ve had the Earthquake Zinfandel before and felt the same about the alcohol on that one as you about the alcohol on the PS. On the other hand, I love the Twisted Oak 2004 Petite Sirah and am looking forward to trying the 2005!
Sounds like you enjoyed your Petite Sirah more than I enjoyed mine!
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I’m sort of surprised you didn’t get much aroma other than alcohol on the Earthquake, because we had all sorts of fruit aromas (though I agree that it was a massive fruit bomb). How long did you let it breathe/decant and what sort of stemware did you use?
Although I find that PS is pretty hardy in-bottle, I’ve also found that it needs to be babied somewhat through breathing/decanting before it will reach its peak.
Loweeel, I tried the Earthquake right out of the bottle, then again a few hours later, then again a day later. There is still some left four days later. I am hoping that over this time she will put her dress back on and act respectable like…
Well, I suppose you can’t go too wrong on Brunello (especially if it’s `97)!
Love the Venison Medallions recipe, by the way, will need to try that one…
Nice to see the wine segment.
Wines hot in alcohol have really been turning me off lately.