Petite Syrah question

I have a bottle of 2006 Guenoc Petite Syrah, Lake County appellation. Anyone care to offer an opinion?

Guenoc is a pretty good moderately priced brand.
Lake County is a relatively warm climate (California inland hot days and cold nights) similar in some respects to Lodi, except its soils are a bit rockier and in some areas include volcanic debris.
It ought to be pretty good country for Petite Sirah, but I've never tasted Guenoc Petite Sirah myself. I've had a number of good QPR, readily drinkable wines from Lake County.

John

John - Thanks. I'll look forward to tasting it.

Alan, Guenoc used to be a good up-and-coming brand, but I think they sorta lost their way along the way, and now I can't remember the last time I had one.

Some years ago Guenoc was acquired in an interesting swap deal with the Feds, when they exchanged a few acres of valuable land in Hawaii with Orville MacGoon for the land in Lake County. MacGoon was an extremely colorful guy, and a passionate champion of his winery venture, and for a while Guenoc was looking pretty good. Their PS in particular, I though pretty damned good---bit light framed, but that was to the good at that time, as many PSs were seen as black and impenetrable. The Guenoc had an approachability that many of them lacked, but still had the peppery/spicy/acidic qualities that distinguished the variety.

The MacGoon's left the scene, though, and the winery was up on the block for quite a while, then sort of just backed into relative obscurity under their later owners. Last time I had the PS it was okay, but not spectacular. I don't believe you'll be disappointed in yours; but you might not look for exaltation either.

(Oh, and during the MacGoon years, you would have looooved visiting Guenoc/Lily Langtry: it was not unusual for the owners to put together a wild boar hunt on their extensive holdings in Lake County. Some good times were had.)

Hoke,
Thanks for the background. I hadn't seen Guenoc for some years - I used to buy it at Liquor Barn and liked it. Recently, I've seen it in supermarkets and BevMo, and the couple of bottles of Sauvignon Blanc I've had were good, but not particularly notable.

John

Thanks Hoke. Speaking of Lily Langtry, I had an opportunity to purchase the Langtry PS when I bought the Guenoc, but at $45 it was out of my comfort range.

Thanks Hoke. Speaking of Lily Langtry, I had an opportunity to purchase the Langtry PS when I bought the Guenoc, but at $45 it was out of my comfort range.

Mine too!

If you're a fan of toned-down PS, Alan, you might try the Parducci. It's a softened and gentrified version, and not at all like it used to be when old crusty John Parducci had it, but under the aegis of Paul Dolan these days, it's not shabby either, and it's probably at a good price in your market. Not the rock-em, sock-em PS of Parducci yore, but drinkable and varietal.

There's another PS out there that might fit that style. Unfortunately, more expensive though and damned hard to find---and may be a bit too much oak to please you, I think---called True Grit PS (another Paul Dolan venture). Mendocino Wine Company makes some good PS too.

Thanks again, Hoke. PS is my current favorite grape. To me that means big and rustic, probably a little tannic with ripe but not forward fruit. I bought a ton of PS from Lodi this year for $1.6K/ton delivered to Colombus, OH. It came in at 21.2% sugar and my first thought was that this was the worst California fruit I've ever seen. Now nearing the end of primary fermentation and it actually looks pretty good. It will be a few more weeks at least before I pass judgement, but so far I'm happy with it.

Lake County is a relatively warm climate (California inland hot days and cold nights) similar in some respects to Lodi, except its soils are a bit rockier and in some areas include volcanic debris.
It ought to be pretty good country for Petite Sirah, but I've never tasted Guenoc Petite Sirah myself. I've had a number of good QPR, readily drinkable wines from Lake County.
John

John,
I'm not quite sure this is an accurate characterization of LakeCounty. Because of the altitude of many of the vnyds, my impression (must admit I've never been
up that far North) is that it's quite a bit cooler than most of Lodi (save some of the Lodi Eastern AVA's). Certainly the soils are quite a bit different. My impression is, climate-wise,
LakeCnty is much more akin to Calistoga or AlexVlly.
LakeCnty is a real underachiever, wine-wise. I think they could be producing some wines the equivalent of anyplace in Calif. Some of BrianKane's SolRouge wines
have been pretty impressive.
Guenoc has made some decent/value-priced wines over the yrs. But nothing that's particularly grabbed my attention.
Tom

Most of the winemakers I know here in the valley have always spoke of Lake County as being a better area for fine wine grapes than the Lodi region.
Speaking of a different region, I have tasted some really good Petite Syrahs from Storrs winery and the grapes were from the Santa Cruz appellation.

Most of the winemakers I know here in the valley have always spoke of Lake County as being a better area for fine wine grapes than the Lodi region.
Speaking of a different region, I have tasted some really good Petite Syrahs from Storrs winery and the grapes were from the Santa Cruz appellation.

Lou, IRRC way back in the mid 80's I admired many bottles of sauvignon blanc from Lake county. In fact, Lake County became the one area I looked at where Cali SB is concerned. Buena Vista is a label that comes to mind from that time, when it could be had for $5 or less.

Tom,

Well, Clear Lake is just over the hill from Calistoga or Alexander Valley. Perhaps I was pushing a bit to describe it as being similar to Lodi, but moving over another range of hills, it's more into the hot days/cool nights than those regions. I do agree that the altitude helps, as well as the less silty soils.
When I was moving from Franzia, Gallo and Italian Swiss Colony to wines with some differentiation some 20 or 25 years ago, Guenoc was one that I noticed and liked at a price point I was willing to pay. I still tend to be somewhat of a bottom-feeder. I feel severe pain when the first digit of the 2-digit price is a crooked number.

John

Hoke,
Thanks for the background. I hadn't seen Guenoc for some years - I used to buy it at Liquor Barn and liked it. Recently, I've seen it in supermarkets and BevMo, and the couple of bottles of Sauvignon Blanc I've had were good, but not particularly notable.John

Yep!

Thanks again, Hoke. PS is my current favorite grape. To me that means big and rustic, probably a little tannic with ripe but not forward fruit. I bought a ton of PS from Lodi this year for $1.6K/ton delivered to Colombus, OH. It came in at 21.2% sugar and my first thought was that this was the worst California fruit I've ever seen. Now nearing the end of primary fermentation and it actually looks pretty good. It will be a few more weeks at least before I pass judgement, but so far I'm happy with it.

Alan: If you ever run across Quixote Winery Petit Sirah...snag some! It's basically the retirement project after the owner of Stags Leap Winery sold his primary holdings to a large corporation. The best Pet I've ever had...not that I know all that much about the grape. Layers and layers of flavors: spices, pepper, fruit. They avoid too much blueberry character, which is cool!