Ep 261: The Grape Miniseries - Petite Sirah

Petite Sirah, a red grape that’s a cross of the Rhône varieties Peloursin and Syrah is a plummy, powerful, and tannic grape that provides the vital support function of a blending grape in many wines, especially Zinfandel. This week we discuss the grape as an important blender and what it does as a standalone variety (spoiler alert: it’s not always great!).   Here are the show notes: We give an overview of the grape, discussing the dark color, strong acidity and tannin, full bodied nature of the grape and how it makes savory, meaty character, dense blackberry flavored, sometimes chocolaty wines We talk about the origin story and get dorky about clones v. hybrids (and M.C. Ice throws in mutants for good measure) Then we discuss why Petite Sirah is really not grown in France and why it’s so important in California, its adopted homeland We hit on top spots for varietal Petite Sirah – parts of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, especially We briefly cover where else Petite Sirah is grown (the US and its PS… I love you campaign, Australia, Israel, mainly) and the top producers: Turley, Ridge, Robert Foley, Quixote, Robert Biale, Alta Colina, Peterson, Crux Finally, we get the inside farmer perspective from Oded Shakked of Longboard Vineyards. I asked Oded for his ideas on Petite Sirah, which are traditional and helpful, and M.C. Ice and I discuss the highlights of my conversation with Oded and why most winemakers like the grape better as a a back-up singer, rather than lead vocals! Feel free to chime in and give us a black eye if you love P.S. -- we can take it!    Thanks to our sponsors this week:  YOU!The podcast supporters on Patreon, who are helping us to make the podcast possible and who we give goodies in return for their help! Check it out today: https://www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople    Last Bottle I love this service!! Last Bottle Wines finds great wines and offers them at a one time discount. Last Bottle Wines: Is a fun way to discover the best wines at the lowest prices Maintains relationships with producers in the most prestigious wine regions around the world and traveling to Europe several times each year to eat with, stay with, drink with, walk the vineyards with the people who make the wines. Offer a range of prices from low end to high end $9 to $99 and the wines range from the lesser known kinds like Albariño and Bläufrankish to Cabernet, Merlot and Chardonnay. Visit: http://lastbottlewines.com/normal and join to get a $10 instant credit to use toward your first order. Invite your wine drinking pals and they’ll get $10 instantly and you get $30 when they make their first buy.   Blinkist: Blinkist is the only app that takes the best key takeaways, the need-to-know information from thousands of nonfiction books and condenses them down into just 15 minutes so you can read or listen to. 8 Million people are using Blinkist right now and it has a massive and growing library: from self-help, business, health to history books. Get the main idea of books so you can decide if they are something you want to read more of or if the gist is just enough! Right now, for a limited time Blinkist has a special offer. Go to www.blinkist.com/​WINE​ to start your free 7 day trial.   Get the back catalog on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.