Petite Sirah may be the most despised of California’s major wines.
Let’s be clear: This is not an obscure grape variety. Petite Sirah is the sixth most widely planted red grape in California, with more than 12,000 acres, barely trailing Syrah. And yet many wine drinkers — including, a lot of the time, me — don’t like it. Often, Petite Sirah produces a wine that is too tarry, too dense, too chewy. Just. Too. Much. The name is ironic: It’s a monster of a wine, liable to leave your gums parched and stain your teeth.
And that’s exactly why Scott Kirkpatrick and Allison Watkins decided to start Mountain Tides Wine Co., a winery dedicated to Petite Sirah. They’re interpreting the grape variety in a way that emphasizes finesse and grace over monolithic power — showing that there’s a reason to get excited about Petite Sirah after all.
First, I was shocked it's still so widely planted. Livermore is, I think, the epicenter for petite sirah in California (and I guess therefore the world), and I've tried many over the years. They're all quite tannic, often coarsely so, and tannin is the one thing that you almost never see in California wine, from the cheapest to the most expensive. I guess it must be a good blending grape, or highly productive, or both.
But second, I can't even picture a lighter petite sirah. Perhaps the whole-cluster fermentation helps. In Tom's thread last week with the Carlisle, he used the word "oafish", and that certainly fits. I like a petite from time to time, with fatty steak, but lighter petite sirah seems like a contradiction in taste, like "weighty pinot noir". I would take a flier on one of the Mountain Tides bottlings if I could find them in a wine shop. Not sure I'm willing to risk ordering some for shipping.
