Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Petite Syrah Pesenti Vineyard is almost black/purple in color. This is another organic vineyard owned by Larry Turley, and the Petite Syrah was planted from cuttings from Napa’s Hayne Vineyard. The limestone soils here have produced what potentially could turn out to be one of the greatest Petite Syrahs ever made, rivaling some of the Ridge Petite Syrahs from the 1970s and 1980s. An absolutely amazing wine, but almost ferocious to taste at this point, the wine has concentration beyond belief. Inky black/purple, with stunning blueberry and floral notes mixed with blackberry and crushed rock give the wine laser-like precision and an unmistakable minerality. Massive and full-bodied, this wine needs a good 10-20 years and should be drinking well 50 or more years from now. If you want to buy a birth year wine for your children or grandchildren, this is the one to buy – you’ll never regret it.
Rating: 98+ -
Wine Spectator
Powerful, complex and wonderfully aromatic, with dried rose petal and white pepper accents that add elegance and complexity to the core of round, thick huckleberry and boysenberry flavors. The tannins are plush. A note of black walnut lingers on the finish. Drink now through 2030.
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.
Paso Robles has made a name for itself as a source of supple, powerful, fruit-driven Central Coast wines. But with eleven smaller sub-AVAs, there is actually quite a bit of diversity to be found in this inland portion of California’s Central Coast.
Just east over the Santa Lucia Mountains from the chilly Pacific Ocean, lie the coolest in the region: Adelaida, Templeton Gap and (Paso Robles) Willow Creek Districts, as well as York Mountain AVA and Santa Margarita Ranch. These all experience more ocean fog, wind and precipitation compared to the rest of the Paso sub-appellations. The San Miguel, (Paso Robles) Estrella, (Paso Robles) Geneso, (Paso Robles) Highlands, El Pomar and Creston Districts, along with San Juan Creek, are the hotter, more western appellations of the greater Paso Robles AVA.
This is mostly red wine country, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel standing out as the star performers. Other popular varieties include Merlot, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Grenache and Rhône blends, both red and white. There is a fairly uniform tendency here towards wines that are unapologetically bold and opulently fruit-driven, albeit with a surprising amount of acidity thanks to the region’s chilly nighttime temperatures.