I have a case of 2004 Rosenblum “Heritage Clones” Petit Sirah which was purchased upon release. I remember buying and drinking a test bottle before making the case purchase. I pulled one the other day and was surprised to find how primary this 11 year old wine remained. Nothing at all objectionable; it was just like drinking grape juice. I’m thinking that the remaining bottles really don’t justify the storage space. Any thoughts? Thanks.
It tends to be, though I think there are better examples than that one which develop more character, particularly from the often overripe 04 vintage. I had an 07 Carlisle Dry Creek recently which was in a great spot, but I agree that great complexity and tertiary development is not really the calling card of petite sirah.
Yes, some of the most uninteresting wines around.
Personally, I’d find that objectionable.
In most instances I do find them one-noted. Similar to my feelings for Brunello. The only Petit Sirah that I can remember being a notable exception was an 85’ York Creek PS from Ridge. The Brunellos I’ve had seem to be monolithic until they fall apart, I’m sure there are exceptions there too, but the hunt continues.
It’s usually a decent wine and more often than not it is competently made. Still, I find little interest in the grape itself.
I don’t drink much petite syrah other than Sean Thackrey’s wines, which I enjoy very much
Hard to typecast any single variety. I’ve had wonderfully elegant, restrained Petite Sirah and I’ve had ones that drink like Hershey syrup.
There’s a group supporting the grape: PS I Love You
I’ve had older versions of Ridge York Creek that I very much enjoyed. Unti did an intriguing 2007. I believe Dashe is doing some restrained examples.
Many versions are monstrous and monolithic, probably because that’s what most people expect.
RT
We used to get some from Grist on Bradford Mountain when it got ripe. We would use it as a blender. Caymus now is taking the whole block so I’m interested to see what they are going to do with it. I’ve liked Turley’s PS from Hayne and Rattlesnake, they just take a long time.
Approximately .0005% of my cellar contents are Petit Sirah, and that was a gift. Aside from finding no definition, layers, or interesting aromas, I usually detect an unpleasant metallic edge.
P Hickner
Not yet. Mine are not old enough yet to try.
PS is certainly a ‘polarizing’ variety and one that has historically been known as a blender because of its ‘monolithic’ character. There are a few known challenges with this grape:
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It is not as hardy as seem would tend to make out it is. It ripens extremely late and tends to have very tight clusters. Any moisture near the end of harvest leads to rot and mold.
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To me, it has been planted in areas where it does not get ripe enough to soften some of the tannins and allow for better fruit expression.
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Too much new American oak is often applied to try to ‘soften’ it and give it a ‘vanilla’ overlay . . .
I continue to dig the variety and use it on its own as well as in a blend with Syrah that I call The Climb.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - get some of this:
Jaffurs’ Thompson Vineyard PS - one of the best QPR’s out there for top notch PS
Yep, the PS I LOVE YOU organization is wonderful and Jo Diaz is a saint. If you like the variety, or want to know more about it, click on that link.
Cheers!
I understand that Caymus buys some Cabernet from Lewelling. I wonder if it is used in their Special Selection.
I have over 400 bottles of PS in my cellar, 3rd most after Nebbiolo and Riesling. I love it young (20 years or less) with hearty food, esp. anything grilled and sauced. Between 20 and 40 years of age, it develops amazing subtly and complexity. You just need patience. Of course, these are generalizations. YMMV.
Kent Rasmussen has said that PS goes through a “dumb phase” and when it emerges, it’s full of nuance and complexity. IIRC, he opined that this phase is between 10 and 20, which jives with what Ken is saying. Similarly, a generality of course, but just another data point. I’ll try to track down KR’s posts.
Kyle,
It could be - or that could just be an explanation to purchase now and hold the wine 
I think many reds ‘go through’ the same thing if they are big and tannic as young wines - some ‘emerge’ better for the time held, and some don’t . . . and my guess is that’s what you’d find with some PS’s.
Just my $.02 . . .
Found it. It’s long:
It seems to me that Petite Sirah is one of the most interesting wines when it comes to the issue of aging and drinking. Young PS is big, rich, usually pretty tannic and above all full of luscious fruit. Funnily enough, unlike a Cab. Sauv., even though they are structurally huge, they are still very drinkable when they are young—mostly because of the charm of all the wonderful fruit. Once a PS is about 10-15 years old it usually starts to go through a “dumb” phase as it loses it’s fruit, but then when they get really old – 20-25 years they come around again like no other wine I have ever had….wonderful rich Bordeaux-like complexity…tons of that cedar-cigar box character that you always associate with really nice old clarets. So my recommend is drink them young or let them sit forever—most PS have the structure to handle the age.
What made me “an expert” on old PS: A few years ago there was a small wine shop in the San Francisco Bay Area that bought people’s cellars. He also bought our wine, but unfortunately, while the fellow who ran the shop was a nice guy, he didn’t pay his bills. One day I was in the shop (collecting a bill) and he had dozens of bottles from the late 1960s to about 1980 of California PS on a table…I said…why? And he told me that when he resold the wine he bought from collections he could never get anyone to take the PS. I made a deal with him that we would trade a bottle of our wine for a bottle of PS…he got something he could sell and I got paid. Over the course of the next year or so (before the IRS caught him) we traded about a hundred bottles and Celia and I had old old PS for dinner several nights each week. These were the great old fathers of PS…Concannon, Burgess, Freemark Abbey, Ridge, and so on. Other than an occasional corky bottle we never had a single one that was “over the hill”. It was a treat and a rare opportunity to learn about old PS.
It’s funny how grapes like P.S. and Zinfandel take on “Bordeaux like complexity” with age. Of course with Zinfandel one need not wait 20-25 years.