The next wine up for consideration during the 12 Days of Petite Sirah is from Twisted Oak Winery in the Sierra Foothills. In addition to focusing on making hand crafted wines, the folks at Twisted Oak Winery are clearly out to simultaneously have a good time while they’re at it. One example of this, is the fact that in addition to wine, their website offers rubber chickens.

The Twisted Oak 2005 Petite Sirah is 100% varietal. All of the fruit was sourced from Frog’s Tooth Vineyard in Calaveras County. 25% of the wine spent time in new American oak, with the balance in a combination of one year, two year and neutral oak. The suggested retail price for this wine is $24.

The nose of this Petite Sirah is dominated by plum and underscored by subtler baker’s spice and cedar notes. The flavors from the first sip on are of deep, dark, brooding fruit. Blueberry is the focal point of the mid-palate. Once this wine opens up (decanting is recommended) it’s a smooth, silky Petite Sirah with medium tannins but no rough edges to speak of. Vanilla and white pepper dot the finish nicely. The fruit on this wine is pretty big and fairly bold, but not overwhelmingly so. There is also a nice balance to it. I had this with a Blue-Cheese Burger with caramelized onions and it matched up perfectly.

For $24 Twisted Oak Winery is offering a well made Petite Sirah, full of true varietal character. Checking out their web page is recommended as they offer low cost flat rate shipping on orders. In addition to that, their website is worth visiting for their obvious sense of humor too.

Check out PS I love You, the Advocacy Group dedicated to this great varietal.

Coming Up: 12 Days of Petite Sirah Continues!!

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Pedroncelli Winery in Sonoma’s Dry Creek is the next stop for the 12 Days of Petite Sirah. I’ve had a lot of experience with their wines over the years. I vividly recall the first time I had a Pedroncelli. It was the mid 90′s and the wine was their Mother Clone Zinfandel. Now as then, the Mother Clone represents a good value and lots of Dry Creek character in its price category. So deciding to include Pedroncelli Winery in my look at Petite Sirah was an easy decision.

The 2005  Petite Sirah is a very recent release. 85% of this offering is Petite Sirah with the balance being Zinfandel. This wine spent 23 months in American oak. Production was limited and the suggested retail price is $14.50.

The 2005 Pedroncelli Petite Sirah is a young wine right now. Decanting this selection is strongly recommended. A couple of hours will do wonders to help this wine open up. Once it’s had a chance to breathe you’ll find classic Dry Creek aromas of earth and rich, dark berry fruit. From the first sip, the Zinfandel that’s blended in makes it’s presence known by way of black pepper notes that linger through this wines palate. Dry, brambly, earthy berry fruit dominates the mid-palate of this wine. Dried blueberries, fig and spice notes make up the fairly lengthy finish. This wine is full of fruit, but balanced by a terrific acidity. As with the other Pedroncelli Wines I’ve had over the years, this Petite Sirah was built to accompany food.

When this wine had been open for a full 24 hours, I went back to see how it was holding up. Not only had it not lost a thing, it’s safe to say it had improved in that time span. Layers of complexity that were not evident the day before came to the forefront.

Pedroncelli Winery suggests a 15 year drinking window for this wine. I actually think that might be a conservative estimate. This wine seems to have the structure and stuffing to go 20 years. For a retail price of $14.50, this one is a steal. 80 plus years into their existence as a winery Pedroncelli continues to pump out well made, food friendly wines at reasonable prices.

Check out PS I love You, the Advocacy Group dedicated to this great varietal.

Next: 12 Days of Petite Sirah Continues!!

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