Petite Sirah Smackdown! 12 Petite Sirahs – 1 Winner!

The most recent Pacific Point Wine Tasting Club meeting featured Petite Sirah (“P.S.”).  There was a diverse selection of P.S.  from wine regions throughout Northern, and Central California.  There were three from Sonoma, 2 each from Napa, Mendocino, and Paso Robles along with Livermore, the Sierra Foothills and Santa Clara Valley.  It was big night in that not only were there 12 P.S. to taste, there were also 18 tasters!  The taster’s experience with wine was a diverse as the regions.  There were a few hardcore “winos” who have lots of experience with wine, but the majority of the tasters are less experienced.

As always, before we got down to the business of  tasting the wines, we had plenty of good eats,  thanks to our gracious host who served up all manner of grilled meats.  Additionally, everyone was asked to bring a dish that would pair well with P.S., so there was a bit of everything!   It’s always a pleasure to get a bite to eat, and catch up with everyone before our tastings!

The wines were blind-tasted in the following order. My tasting notes follow (click on the link for my detailed Cellar Tracker reviews and ratings):

The wines bagged and tagged. A couple of more were added later!

2008 Guglielmo Family Winery Petite Sirah Private Reserve – USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Clara Valley
13.2% alcohol. $25 Retail 405 cases produced

2008 Clayhouse Vineyard Petite Sirah Estate Show Pony Red Cedar Vineyard – USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
14.2% alcohol. Retail – $35

2008 Concannon Vineyard Petite Sirah Conservancy – USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Livermore Valley
13.5% alcohol. $15 Retail. 6,000 cases produced

2008 Pedroncelli Petite Sirah – USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley
13.8% alcohol. $16 Retail.

2009 Kent Rasmussen Petite Sirah Esoterica Chavez-Leeds Vineyard – USA, California, Napa Valley, Rutherford $40 Retail

2009 Rock Wall Wine Co. Petite Sirah Gamble Ranch – USA, California, Napa Valley, Rutherford
15% alcohol. Retail $35 291 cases produced

2008 Field Stone Petite Sirah Staten Family Reserve – USA, California, Sonoma County, Alexander Valley
15.5 % alcohol. Retail $35. 636 cases produced.

2007 Barra of Mendocino Petite Sirah Mendocino – USA, California, North Coast, Mendocino
Retail $22. 390 cases produced

2010 Redtree Petite Sirah – USA, California, Sonoma County  12.5% alcohol. $8 Retail. 3,416 cases produced.

2009 Viña Robles Petite Sirah Estate – USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
15% alcohol. $26 Retail.  3,352 Cases produced

2009 Lava Cap Petite Sirah Reserve Granite Hill – USA, California, Sierra Foothills, El Dorado
Alcohol 14.8% Retail $30. 447 cases produced

2009 Artezin Petite Sirah Garzini Ranch Mendocino County – USA, California, North Coast, Mendocino County
14.2% alcohol. Retail $36.

Group results:

Photo courtesy of Jojo Ong

After the scores were tabulated here’s the winner!…

Yes…an $8 wine bet out all the rest!  By now, the results don’t surprise me, especially when a blind tasting is involved.  This wine is a great value, and at $8 it could make a great everyday wine!  I’ll definitely be looking for this one!  You should too!

The order of finish for the runners-up was as follows:

  1.  2008 Field Stone Petite Sirah Staten Family Reserve
  2. 2007 Barra of Mendocino Petite Sirah Mendocino
  3. 2009 Lava Cap Petite Sirah Reserve Granite Hill
  4. 2009 Viña Robles Petite Sirah Estate
  5. 2009 Rock Wall Wine Co. Petite Sirah Gamble Ranch 
  6. 2009 Kent Rasmussen Petite Sirah Esoterica Chavez-Leeds Vineyard 
  7. 2008 Pedroncelli Petite Sirah
  8. 2008 Concannon Vineyard Petite Sirah Conservancy
  9. 2008 Clayhouse Vineyard Petite Sirah Estate Show Pony Red Cedar Vineyard 
  10. 2009 Artezin Petite Sirah Garzini Ranch Mendocino County
  11. 2008 Guglielmo Family Winery Petite Sirah Private Reserve
NOTE:  All wines were media samples

The “Bonus” round!

After the main tasting was finished, we paired this “Port-style” dessert wine with two blue cheeses, Castellano Creamy Blue Cheese, and Trader Joes’s Aged Blue Cheese…

and two types of dark chocolates (one with 72% cacao, and one with 85% cacao) to see which pairing we preferred.

The wine was a hit! Here are my tasting notes:

2008 Barra of Mendocino Petite Sirah Bella Dolce Mendocino – USA, California, North Coast, Mendocino
Deep dark garnet color with dark fruit, roast coffee aromas. Jammy decadent blackberry/blueberry cobbler and vanilla flavors. Long finish 18.5% alcohol. Made with organic grapes. Retail – $28 (87 pts.)

It was a toss-up between the Castellano creamy blue cheese, and the Valrhona Le Noir Extra Amer 85% cacao chocolate as to which of the chocolates and cheeses it worked best with.  I can tell you that both disappeared rather quickly.  For many it was their first time trying a blue cheese with red wine, and they found it to be a surprisingly delightful pairing!

All in all, it was a great tasting – with purple teeth all around! P.S. We Love You!

Look for Part 2 of the Petite Sirah Smackdown – Coming soon!

15 Comments

  1. I love blind tastings! And the $8 winner proves once again that a big price tag doesn’t necessarily mean a wine will have mass appeal. ¡Salud!

    1. Hi Pamela – So true! Virtually every time our wine tasting club does one of these, the least expensive wine wines. I think there are a number of factors at play, not the least of which is less expensive wines are easier to like because they tend to be fruitier…but as you point out, I don’t think there’s generally a direct relationship between quality and price. Thanks for stopping by!

  2. Terry Hill (Texas Wineaux) says:

    I am a big fan of Petite Sirah, and one of my favorites is Girard Napa Valley. It is a little hard to find unless you are at the tasting room, but at $22-$25 a bottle it will wow you!

    1. Thanks Terry…I’ve heard good thing about the Girard also. Seems like a good value at $22. One of my fave Napa P.S. is Robert Biale, but it’s much more expensive. Sound like I need to put Girard on my next Napa itinerary. My favorite from the tasting was the Barra, which is out of Mendo, and also $22.

  3. My Husband & Cousin are BIG PS lovers. I enjoy it as well, but they are crazy about it!

    So many things about your event are spectacular!

    First: Where did you get those ‘blind tasting bags’ they are great!
    Second: Can I join your club!

    I’ll be coming back to this post to follow up on all the contestants.

    Cheers!
    Eileen

    1. Eileen. Thanks! The bags were actually made by my mother-in-law after my wife got the idea will we were out tasting, then she told my mother-in-law what she wanted and she made them. They’re great bags, and I like them bette than the skirts we previously used. But if I had to do it (well if my mother-in-law did it again;-), I’d select a darker color, it’s inevitable they will get stained with red wine! I hope you do get a chance to check out my CT notes (here’s the Cliff Note version – http://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=17787) My faves were the Barra, Fieldstone and Clayhouse. Speaking of Clayhouse – they’re in Paso, and they have some very nice PS!

  4. Jo Diaz says:

    Great story… PS I Love You… I get to say that a lot. — jo diaz

  5. Looks like a fun evening filled with great wines and purple teeth I bet. Thank you for the opportunity to submit our “Old Vine” Petite. Cheers! – Jason Robinson – Field Stone Winery

    1. Thanks for your comment Jason…No doubt there were purple teeth all around! Part II of the PS Smackdown is tonight!

  6. khadermoh says:

    Too bad I missed out on this, had another appointment last evening. Luv those bags. Looks forward for the next event

  7. Christopher Watkins says:

    Hey Martin, any chance of slipping one of the two Ridge PS offerings into your next blind?

    1. Texas Wineaux says:

      The Ridge Petite Sirah is really good!

    2. Hi Christopher…Doh! Would have loved to have a Ridge PS included, but we did the second part of the blind tasting last Friday night! Next time!

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