Thought I’d post this separate, since it might have gotten lost with all the Albans…
1969 Freemark Abbey Petite Sirah York Creek- USA, California, Napa Valley, Spring Mountain District (1/16/2012) Alban Vineyards Tasting 1993-2009 (Buzzini House): The birthday wine…from the Barney Rhodes cellar…very young looking and tasting! Wonderful smooth plum/blackberry fruit, leather, mushroom, olives, anise. Still sweet, plum liqueur, good dose of dusty old cellar tannin dryness, great tobacco leaf, balance. Best '69er I’ve had! (93 pts.)
The Freemark Abbey York Creek Petite Sirahs were terrific and no doubt still are. It used to be fun to compare them with the Ridge York Creek bottlings. I realized Freemark Abbey was in some difficulty when they stopped producing this wine in the 1970s. Things have never been quite the same.
I still have a handful of 1971 Ridge York Creeks (the first vintage of this wine). They are still in great shape.
MrBigJ
Petite Sirahs are definitely sleepers. We had a group of young wine makers that held a blind tasting of older vintage wines last summer. Most were Chardonnays from the early 70’s, many of which were stellar and a few were gone. There were also some older reds, one being a Stags Leap Winery 1973 Petite Sirah in the cheap, flat bottomed bottle with the price sticker of $9.99 still on it. It was wine of the night by unanimous scores and notes.
Well, Morgan…I’m not sure I’d totally agree with that. For sure, they can be. I find that their aging trajectory can be a bit inconsistent. Many can start out on the oafish/clunky side and they just
remain that way their entire life. And then others start out oafish/clunky and develop into something absolutely magnificent. The Ridge YC '71 is one such example…maybe the
greatest Calif red wine I ever had…when I last had iit some 15 yrs ago. I guess I just find aging PS a bit of a crap shoot and I haven’t figured it out yet, after all these yrs of trying.
So…“perhaps” is a good qualifier in your statement.
Tom