I loathe to preface with “TN” as I took few notes, but it was kind of interesting. I can’t name three PS’s that I have opened in the last fifteen years, and I opened three this weekend.
Friday it was the 2004 Robert Foley Petite Sirah. HUGE. What a monster of a wine. I liked it a lot, but oddly my SO absolutely loved it. Odd, because she has been distancing herself from bigger wines, cringes when I open Cali Cab, and tends to forbid that I open BDX. It’s pretty much all PN for her, with a bit of Zin and Syrah thrown in. So why did she like this? I welcome theories. But this was inky black, full of Zin like blackberries, tannic, and huge. I liked it. It seems like it would age forever, but I’d really hate to wait, because the kick-ass quality is the fun of it, no?
Saturday I thought I was grabbing a Syrah but it was actually the 2005 Scholium Babylon Tenebrink. Mid bodied. Much more subdued wine - blueberry fruit, earthy/leathery/funky/foresty qualities that were nice but really different (and couldn’t be more different from the Foley). Very interesting wine.
Sunday I was digging around and found the 1998 Navarro Petite Sirah and it seemed like destiny. Mid bodied and a very similar weight to the Sholium. Can’t remotely believe it is over a decade old, as it is vibrant and just ‘all there.’ The fruit was all cherry, of all things. So a third completely different flavor profile among the three PS’s. If I had been blindfolded I would have sworn this was a Pinot noir. It was open for a few hours and never lost a bit of its vibrancy. Navarro seems incapable of making anything less than stellar wines.