Winemaker Notes
For lovers of big, extracted red wines, packed with flavor and fine tannins, this is the variety for you!
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2003 Petite Sirah is a classic. Opaque purple to the rim, with a big, sweet nose of blackberries, white flowers, crushed rocks, vanilla, and smoke, ferociously tannic but enormously concentrated and extracted, this wine needs 5-6 years of bottle age and will handsomely repay two decades of aging.
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Wine Spectator
Lots of exotic spice, wood and hazelnut aromas lead to a rich, supple, polished core of harmonious wild berry and blackberry fruit. It's so refined and elegant you'll be surprised that this is a Petite Sirah, though the tannins on the finish will remind you of this grape's chewy personality.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.