Petite Sirah still fires me up, and on occasion I get a bottle or two open. Often times in support of our tradition around here, we’ll get one open after a long meal, as a closer to tie it all up. I don’t care for sweet white wines or things with a lot of RS at all, but I do like the intensity, color and can tolerate the higher ABV of Petite Sirah if I drink enough water and have food around it.
I have a mix of Switchback Ridge and Carlisle in the cellar, which is really the extent of my PS inventory, with a little Mending Wall, too. Decided tonight to get one of these 2015s open and it’s so good. Pleasure in a bottle, California red captured as joy for a glass. Thanks for reading.
2015 Carlisle Petite Sirah Palisades Vineyard- USA, California, Napa Valley (1/5/2019)
About 18 months since the last bottle. It’s a rainy, cool winter night in the OC so figured this would be a good match to beat back the season. I opened this about an hour ago, sipped on some low alc 2015 Girardet Seyval Blanc from Oregon first to engage my palate (which BTW is a stunning wine for less than $30). After a glass of that with some cheese, poured this to switch to red. Like the bottle from June 2017, this is so aromatically floral, wafting out of the glass with just a mix of flowers. The palate is juicy and full of blackberry fruit, and if you can visualize pure blueberries in your hand, then popped into your mouth, crunching down on the acidity and flavors, you’ll have it. There is blueberry here too, again like you would find at the fruit stand that comes in those blue pulp boxes. Juicy like those are. There is some chocolate here too, and yet I am not finding the iron that was in the 2017 bottle. Finishes with a charcoal and lightly ferrous note. This is drinking quite well now and I don’t see a wall of structure in this wine but if it comes through later as the 2017 bottle kind of showed, I will revise my note. Right now, it’s purely delicious Palisades petite.
Rat, I will always like petite, as there is a part of my own personality that likes intensity and things that are bold, as well as subtle and nuanced, like really good Champagne.
For an update on the wine, as the bottle did from 2017, this did add some structure to its profile with the air since last night’s serving. The ferrous quality is stronger, joining all the other flavors from yesterday. This is a really strong vintage for Carlisle Palisades.
Pets can, and do, show complexity and nuance when done right. Most, though, kill it with aggressive oak programs, I’ve seen some proudly display their 200% new oak programs. All I can say is, it seems to work for many a consumer, I never understood this part when Pets grown in a great region/climate, with Calistoga being my No. 1 by far, and really in no need to add new oak with natural fruit tannins more than able to define structure. IMHO.
I’d let Mike’s versions sleep for a bit, they will show well.
Agree with you about new oak on PS. It naturally has that creamy chocolate quality, even from our cool-climate vineyard source. No need to overload it with new oak IMHO.
I recall first ever tasting by the (then) newly organized Petite producers, Pets I Love You, in SF. Sasha Verhage and I looked on in horror, well, in my case at least, at the number of wineries displaying pictures of cut up barrels of their 200% new oak programs, and resulting wines displaying big notes of oak at front, mid and finish, and fruit playing a way distant second fiddle. But my takeaway that day was those particular tables were also the most attended by consumers. Pets by itself has more than enough tannins, at least grown in great regions/conditions, and when you add aggressive new oak on top of that, and in great quantity, with a few wineries actually using American oak to boot, it all just becomes a jumbled mess of grippy tannins that may never be fully resolved to allow fruit to come forward. Again, to my palate, I am obviously in the minority group when it comes to Pets when looking at the marketplace. Pets grown in cooler regions than, say, Calistoga, and with different ripening curve are fine with some new oak to add structure, of course, but then again, with less aggressive coopers. In most cases, Calistoga being one, all neutral program may be more than fine, IMHO, and allows complexity and nuance of the fruit itself to shine through. Our 2005 was Calistoga fruit, all neutral, and even today wine needs at least 45 minutes in decanter to start opening up with tannins showing up even later.
Newly started tasting group in Las Vegas will be doing Pets tasting this coming weekend, blind of course, should be an interesting one. I am looking forward to what shows up and will see how some older ones in my collection play out, last comprehensive Pets tasting I did was a while ago. Plenty of water to cleanse palates throughout, I am sure
I think Palisades Vineyard produce my favorite Petite Sirahs! The best one I have had is a 2006 Carver Sutro Palisades Vineyard. The tannins were present, yet soft and the wine was harmonious and purely enjoyable to drink. It’s a shame that most Pets aren’t like this. Their tannins are high to start with so there is no reason to use new oak at all with them. I wish more winemakers would use neutral oak with Pets.
Have to say the OP hooked me so last weekend, late should have gone to bed, went to the cellar and grabbed a 14 and had a 4 oz pour. We had the rest the next night. Terrific PS, about the 3rd or 4th go at this wine and it is a good one. Will buy more next release after passing for a couple years. They drink just fine young.
I realized tonight i made a mistake in my note above. The fruits that i wanted to describe from the fruitstand were blackberries so i edited my post. The wine truly had that fresh mix of blue and black.
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