TN: Blind Tasting older Stony Hill Chard, Petite Sirah, "Port" & Port

WINE TALK
1

Blind tasting last night. Really interesting set of wines.

Warm up wine:
1981 Stony Hill Chardonnay (Napa)
Floral aromatics, pretty. Austere and flinty at first on the palate, but opens up with some pear fruit as well. I had no specific idea what this was, though Chardonnay certainly came to mind. My thoughts ran to older Chablis. 16.5/20

Six blind Petite Sirahs that had me convinced they were anything but Petite Sirah
1969 Freemark Abbey Petite Sirah York Creek (Napa/Spring Mtn)
Flowers and red fruit and very little tannin. Lots of acidity. Shows a little bit hot at first, but fleshes out in the glass. 16.5/20

1971 Freemark Abbey Petite Sirah York Creek (Napa/Spring Mtn)
Very funky/leathery on the nose. Richer on the palate than the 1969. The leathery elements carry through on the palate with lots of dried cherry fruit. I would have liked this better than the first wine except it was not as appealing on the aromatics. More funk than I prefer. 15.5/20

1981 Ridge Petite Sirah Devil’s Hill (Napa/Spring Mtn)
Wow! There is not a drop of fruit left in this wine, but it’s incredibly intense. Tons of meaty, bloody, iron & iodine that just slams the palate and keeps going for as long as you care to let it. Very impressive wine, but not for fruit lovers. 19/20

1982 Ridge Petite Sirah Devil’s Hill/Lake (Napa/Spring Mtn)
This was a very nice wine. Really it was. It had pretty, cherry and earth aromatics and a very nice balance of fruit and tannin. If I had tasted it in isolation or with a meal I would have absolutely loved it. In fact I liked it very much even in the shadow of the 1981. BUT it was in the shadow of the 1981. 16.5/20

1991 La Jota Petite Sirah (Napa/Howell Mtn)
At first sip this seemed watery/thin. It fleshed out a bit, but never caught my attention. Just aged into obscurity (and still in the shadow of the 1981 Ridge). 14.5/20

1994 Rockland Petite Sirah (Napa)
Richer than the La Jota, and showed good balance of fruit and tannin. Not distinguished, but rustic. Get me a burger! 15.5/20

And now for something completely different – two wines that threw us for a complete loop!

NV Yalumba Antique Rare Tawny 50 Years Museum Reserve (Australia, NSW)
This is all butterscotch, nuts and spice with an amazingly long finish. I kept waiting for the flavors to disappear, but they never did. Stunning wine that I had no context for. Just delicious. I took a last sip of this at the end of the evening, and the flavors lingered for 15 or 20 minutes. 18.5/20

NV Graham’s 40 Year Tawny Port
According to the host, this bottle came as part of an auction lot. It had a very old version of the Graham’s label. No idea how old this bottle was, but the wine was really delicious. It had no red color at all. It was a deep yellow/gold (so was the Yalumba). There was a sweet/candied element on the nose, and then the palate was just silk. Pretty, pretty, pretty. The finish was not as long as the Yalumba, but it was more complex, with flowers, nuts, candy…The Yalumba was static, while this kept moving/changing. Wild stuff. 19/20

2

Do you have a pic of the Graham’s? May be able to help narrow down the bottling date of it. Though there is usually a bottling date listed on it, mostly on the back label.

3

No bottling date anywhere. I spent a good bit of time looking. I will ask the host to take a photo if he has not already trashed the empty.

4

'69 Freemark Abbey Petite Sirah is one of my favorite wines, but it takes hours (and sometimes even a day or two) to show its best.
And when it does, it’s a really lovely wine.

5

That’s a really cool tasting. Thanks for posting the notes.

Good quality and mature petite sirah is a treat, though I have never quite been motivated enough to buy PS and store it for 20+ years.

6

One of the guys in our group hunts down older PS at auction.

7

Cool tasting David, thanks for posting the notes.

8

We did a stony hill tasting recently, stretching back only til 91, but including 8 bottlings from the 90’s. very interesting, and actually not quite my cup of tea, but the wines certainly have some staying power, and I could see them lasting for quite a while yet.

9

Finally got to examine a photo of the bottle of Graham’s. It did have a bottling date: 1989. So take a 40 year old Tawny Port and add 25 years to it!

10

That’s a long time in bottle for a aged Tawny. Glad it still showed so well, often they don’t.