Winemaker Notes
The True Grit Reserve Petite Sirah has heady aromas of ripe fruit, white pepper and vanilla, followed by an intense rush of fresh blackberry, dark chocolate, pepper and caramel flavors.
Produced in a California Certified Sustainable Winery (CCSW). Vegan.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Yes, there are great wines from California’s North Coast for $25 a bottle, like this classic from Parducci. Tim Thornhill farms several blocks for this wine, planted between 1993 and 2009. Rather than old-vine complexity, it’s about fresh red fruit edging petite’s blackness, like the red of a peach at the pit. There’s also a floral note, hinting at jasmine and something darker, like violets. While its tannins are relatively soft for petite, the wine is oxygen starved, potently structured, needing hours or days to fully show itself. (Best Buy)
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Wine Enthusiast
Bold and beautiful, this full-bodied wine is very deep in color, chock full of blackberry, wood smoke and baking spices backed by rich blueberry flavors and very firm tannins. Sure to age well, it will be best from 2024.
Editors' Choice
With its deep color, firm tannins and bold flavors, there is nothing petite about Petite Sirah. The variety, originally known as Durif in the Rhône, took on its more popular moniker after being imported to California in the early 1880s. Quintessentially recognized today as a grape of the Golden State, Petite Sirah works well blended with Zinfandel and finds success as a single varietal wine in the state’s warmer districts. Somm Secret—Petite Sirah is not a smaller version of Syrah but it is an offspring of Syrah and the now nearly extinct French Alpine variety called Peloursin.
A large and diverse appellation within California’s North Coast AVA, Mendocino is home to several smaller sub-regions—most notably the Anderson Valley. This scenic region, with rolling hills covered in redwood forests as well as vineyards, is one of the world’s top producers of certified organically-grown grapes. Due to wide geographical and climatic variation, a vast array of wine styles can be found here.