TN: 2007 Tercero - Petite Sirah (USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Ynez Valley)

WINE TALK
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2007 Tercero Petite Sirah - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Ynez Valley (4/14/2014)
– decanted immediately before initial taste –
– tasted non-blind over a few hours on Day 1; tasted again on Day 3 –

NOSE: DAY 1: initially tight; pronounced mineral note; ripe dark berries (blackberry & blueberry); a touch more expressive 1.25 hours after opening; ballpoint pen ink. DAY 3: much more expressive than on Day 1; chalky; high-toned purple berries; potting soil.

BODY: black-garnet color of great depth (looks like Welch’s grape juice); medium-full to full bodied.

TASTE: DAY 1: medium-to-light oak on the rear palate; tannins almost entirely resolved; ripe, non-descript purple fruits, with hints of leather, earth, and mineral; moderately expressive & complex; ~ 3 hours in, the fruits turn a bit towards the red fruit spectrum, but very concentrated (jammy); 14.3% alc. not noticeable; in a good place right now (with a long decant), but still young — I think this will continue to improve for a few years on the strength of its good fruit concentration, fine tannins, and low alcohol, so drink now – 2020. DAY 3: not gloppy; oak not intrusive; very good.

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Thanks for sharing, Brian! This was the first PS I ever made - I passed on fruit in 2006 because I wasn’t happy with it - and I have enjoyed seeing it continue to develop over the last number of years. This was quite a backwards wine upon release and I knew it would need a few years to really strut its stuff - it seems to be getting closer to its zone to do so . . .

PS in Santa Barbara County is not that common - there just is not a lot of it planted out here. I was always impressed with what Jaffurs did (and continues to do) with their Thompson offering. And I was impressed with the fruit that came out of Rodney’s Vineyard, the vineyard on Foxen Canyon that Fess Parker owns. These are ‘old vine’ PS for our area - planted in the late 1980’s :slight_smile: The cuttings come from the Palisades Vineyard in Napa, a true old-vines site that I know Mike Officer sources from among others.

I would hope to see more PS’s coming out of our area, but I just don’t think highly enough about the variety to invest in it any more. Bummer . . .

Cheers

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I love Santa Barbara County red wines. I think they are under appreciated and can be wonderful young and with some age on them too.

Larry, other than your delicious offerings, what are some of your favorite SBC wines/producers for reds?

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Michael,

Could not agree more :slight_smile:

As far as other producers go, give me a bit more guidance - are you talking rhones, burgundian varieties, bordeaux varieties, Italian, Spanish? There’s a whole lot going on in our little ole county which makes answering this a bit more ‘challenging’. And are you looking for the IPOB-type wines or just ‘well made wines’ in general?

Sorry for the plethora of questions but I really do want to help . . .

Cheers!

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Sorry for the vagueness Larry. I am curious about rhones mostly. I love Syrah and GSM’s.

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Michael,

Thanks! Lots to love around here for sure - and I know you are familiar with most of the players. For my money, the best values in our area include Jaffurs (especially their SBC Syrah and their PS!!!), Qupe, Stolpman, and Andrew Murray. There certainly are plenty other players out there, including Tensley, Beckmen, Refugio Ranch (good stuff), Zaca Mesa (improving each year IMHO), Samsara, Piedrasassi, Jonata, and a few others. Most of these wineries have straight syrahs, and some feature other rhone varieties as well.

Ballard Canyon is making a huge push with their new AVA, and you will start seeing ‘special AVA bottles’ on estate syrahs from the likes of Beckmen, Stolpman, Jonata, Larner, Rusack, Saarloos, Harrison-Clarke and a few others. My hope is that their prices don’t start to creep up as well . . . . and those of us purchasing fruit from that area, like myself, Jaffurs, Ojai, and a few others will NOT be able to use these special bottles . . . and the bottles will only be used on syrah, the dominant planted variety in the AVA.

Each and every year, new players arise, and I am hesitant to recommend some because I’ve not seen a track record yet. As you and I both know, it’s much easier now than ever to get into this industry - and much easier doing Rhones than, say, pinot (price of admission = price per ton and availability of grapes). That said, I have seen a swing in the past two vintages, including this one, of tighter supplies and rising prices . . . and in more than one case, wineries from Paso purchasing grapes from some of the larger vineyards down here. Interesting indeed . . .

For my money, there still is no better place in CA in a macro sense for balanced rhones than Santa Barbara County. Yep, there are plenty of examples from elsewhere of beautifully balanced, age-worthy rhone varieties, but day in day out, producer to producer, I’ll put stuff from here up against others . . .

Cheers!

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Thanks Larry. SBC wines are my favorite. Really hard to beat QPR’s. The Ballard Canyon push is interesting and something to watch.
I have also seen a new(er) vineyard pop up: Kimsey. Do you know anything about it?

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Kimsey is relatively new and has been selling off to others - but is now producing their own wines. I’ve had a roussanne produced by someone else with their fruit and it was pretty good - have not had any reds as of yet. Great location certainly accounts for a lot - but you still need to get the farming right, make the right pick decisions, use the ‘correct’ barrels (whatever that means), etc etc so I guess time will tell . . .

Cheers!

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Coming back to this, drinking my last bottle, which was purchased and stored by myself since its release in 2010. It’s faring well, but – when comparing to my TN in 2014 – it looks like it might be best to drink these sooner rather than later if you’re still holding. Cheers!

2007 Tercero Petite Sirah - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Ynez Valley (8/17/2021)
– decanted approx. 30 min. before initial taste –
– tasted non-blind over a couple hours –

NOSE: high-toned and dark-fruited; a touch dusty; the high-toned feature seems to be a product of bottle ageing.

BODY: dark garnet color of great depth, with slight bricking at the edges; {forgot to note weight}

TASTE: smooth; tannins resolved; medium to medium+ acidity; dark-fruited; nicely aged, but could still go longer; alc. comes across as being a bit spiky; gut impression score: high 80s.

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