Celebrating WineShop At Home’s New Petite Sirah

If you’re a long-time reader of my blog, you probably know that I’m a huge Petite Sirah fan. So, I was thrilled that one of WineShop At Home’s new wines is our Sun Fish Petite Sirah. Today, I’ll introduce you to this great wine and do a quick review of Petite Sirah’s wonderful and somewhat mysterious story.

This Grape’s Story – Part 1

In my article Celebrating Petite Sirah,  I talked about the fact that in the late 1800s, a French botanist named François Durif set out to create a Syrah grape that wasn’t prone to mildew. He crossed Syrah with Peloursin and named the new grape Durif (pronounced Dureef). Happily, the new grape was mildew resistant. Sadly, the new grape produced mediocre wine. Hence, within a few decades it disappeared.

This Grape’s Story – Part 2

Or so we thought.

It turns out that the Durif grape quietly made its way to CA, where the terroir (the grape’s growing environment) was much more to the grape’s liking.

But the grape wasn’t called Durif. Somehow, it got the name Petite Sirah. It wasn’t until 2003, when UC Davis did some fingerprinting and discovered that the grape was in fact the Durif grape.

Typical Petite Sirah Characteristics

According to Wine Folly: Magnum Edition: The Master Guide, “Petite Sirah is loved for its deeply colored wines with rich black fruit flavors and bold tannins. Given Petite Sirah’s sometimes aggressive tannin profile, it pairs best with fat- and umami-driven dishes – be it steaks from the grill or a plate of beef stroganoff.”

WineShop At Home’s Sun Fish Petite Sirah

Our Sun Fish Petite Sirah ($26) was produced with fruit mainly from the central coast of California. This is a young, powerful, rich wine. In the nose, there is an abundance of fresh, intense dark fruit, like blackberry, black cherry and black currant. Later, smoky and balsamic characters present themselves. There is a good amount of intensity in the attack from this dry, red wine. In the mid-palate, some smoky, almost meaty tones develop. Oak tannins anchor the structure all the way to the finish.

As you saw earlier, Madeline Puckette of Wine Folly recommends pairing meat with Petite Sirah. But as a vegetarian, I paired it with cheese pizza, and I was thrilled.

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and would like to try our Petite Sirah at a tasting, please let me know. I’d love to set up a tasting for you. If you’re not near me, please consider buying a bottle of two. If you’re a big bad red drinker, I can all but guarantee that you will love it.

Cheers!