I buy a lot of Ridge. Lots of it. I’ve probably bought more Ridge than all other California wines combined. My modest cellar has a bunch of the age-worthy Zins and some Cabs.
But I’ve never had the Petite Sirah.
And hopefully, I never have it again.
This thing is like an over-ripe California wine mixed with a modern Southern Rhone, matured in American oak for some extra sweet vanilla and pickles. A fusion of old and new where nothing works. Flabby, plummy dark fruits, methol cigarettes from a bad caricature of a seedy hipster bar, sickly-sweet cloves, burnt tar off a hot sunny day on Highway 29, melted licorice, low acid, chewy tannins and some heat.
I see from the Ridge website that this is the fourth vintage of this wine. I also see an AG-93 score on this wine.
This does not work for me.
Ugh, sorry for the edits to correct typos, must have been the heady alcohol!
There are precious few PSs worth the effort to seek out. Ridge’s York Creek was one of them. Whatever happened to that? That could turn silky and syrah-like with 10 years of aging or so. I see they source fruit from there. Do they ever bottle a PS from there now?
It’s disconcerting to hear a Ridge wine described as "over-ripe California wine mixed with a modern Southern Rhone.
What was the alcohol? And what was 2012 like in western Sonoma?
Sounds awful, Robert. I assume this is the Lytton Estate?
I’ve never been a fan on any of Ridge’s Lytton Estate wines, be it Syrah or Zinfandel though I don’t recall having had a PS from that vineyard.
But I’ve loved many a Ridge Petite Sirah from York Creek. There’s some decent Ridge PS from other vineyards – including a Priorat-esque 100% Petite Sirah bottling from Geyserville that they only make once in a while – but York Creek was its best.
If memory serves, Ridge had access to York Creek PS until 2009. They released a 2007 Dynamite Hill PS early this year. Does anyone know if there are any more York Creek petite sirahs in the pipeline from Ridge? (2008, 2009?)
Not exactly “lost” access, David. They actually gave up the access as their Lytton West PS came into production.
PaulDraper & FritzMaytag were US AID partners down in Chile after their Stanford days. When Fritz acquired YorkCreek vnyd, he started selling
grapes to Ridge (about 1971); mostly PS, but also Merlot/Cab/Zin as well. He did not raise the price on his grapes to Ridge much over the yrs
and Paul was getting them for a song. Like about a third the price they’d bring on the open market. So as the LS PS came on-line, Paul offered Fritz
the deal to give up the PS grapes, which Fritz accepted. Mostly, the grapes go to his Fritz Maytag label, I believe. Though I think he does sell
some of the PS to others…forget who.
The Ridge YorkCreek PS was/is a legendary wine, especially the '71. Maybe one of the greatest Calif wines I’ve ever had. I think their last YC PS
was the '07…but believe they still have one more, maybe two, yet to release. Then gone/gone.
They make two LS PS’s…a LyttonEstate (described above), which goes out to distributors, and the LyttonWest, which is an ATP release.
I’ve never found the Ridge LS PS’s up to the level of their YC versions. I think they’re still dialing in on what those grapes can give. They all seemed
a bit on the coarse/clunky side of PS…maybe w/ age they’ll turn into something great.
PS is a funny grape in Calif. Followed it from the very start…I did/I did. It can oftentimes make a rather coarse/crude/clunky kind of wine, usually w/
lots of tannins, and lacking much in the way of fruit. But almost always very dark in color unless aged to senility in large vats as the do at Foppiano
or Parducci or Concannon.
But sometimes some winemakers can coax some high-toned fruit from the variety. I think the Jaffurs ThompsonVnyd PS is the greatest one made in Calif.
The Turleys are also very/very good. Other good ones are JCCellars/VincentArroyo/JacobFranklin.
Tom
Here’s an interesting question as it relates to this thread and perhaps PS in general - how many folks drink their PS’s with this little bottle age (or basically none)? Just curious because to me, this is a variety that shines with at least a few years of bottle age.
I tried the '12 at a Rhone Rangers event and found it ‘interesting’ - is it one of the best young PS’s I’ve had? Heck no - but I did find that it had some interesting components and I’ll be laying some down for a few years to see how they develop.
Also curious to ask Tom and others - those ‘legendary’ PS’s of the past - when did folks find them ‘legendary’? After how many years in bottle?
Tom - Was it determined that the York Creek PS was all Duriff?
I’m sure you remember the excellent Concannon PSs from the 80s. Were those aged a long time? The winery changed hands, as I recall, and I assume they probably replanted for phylloxera at some point. I tried one maybe 10 years ago and it had no resemblance to the ones I remember from the 80s.
Larry - The Ridge Oak Creeks from the 1980s and 1990s really seemed to hit their strides after 10 years. I’m sure I tasted some young, but I don’t recall what they were like.
