TN: 1979 Fetzer Special Reserve Petite Sirah, Mendocino

WINE TALK
21

After I missed this first few days of you posting, I was going to wait, like a month, to give you an out of nowhere head nod, Rich, as a tribute to the out-of-nowhere quality of a '79 Petite Syrah. But the board has been grim reading this week, so thinking about this Wine of the Year Petite Syrah is the joy I need when I take a look at this place.

22

Not gonna lie my man…I was a little sad that I didn’t get a Nick Christie gif in this thread :wink:

Appreciate you and the comment buddy!

23

I had a 74 Ridge Creek PS a few years ago. I’d never had a PS older than 4 years. I was blown away by how fresh and alive it was. It seems some of those PS’s can age forever, or close to it. The 74 Ridge had a dirty, torn label and wrinkled capsule, but fill was into neck and cork was perfect. The labels on your bottle looked great. Out of curiosity, how was the fill level; cork; and was there much sediment?

Thanks for the note!

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24

Love that Ben! Well stored aged PS from top producers is such a treat, and Ridge has gotta be one of the better examples. I bet that 74 was magic!!

For my bottle, the fill level and color were excellent! High neck and the red color was easy to see through the glass, so I was cautiously optimistic going into it (especially because of the color). My bottle also had a substantial amount of sediment, but I had it standing up for a good week before opening so it wasn’t an issue [cheers.gif]

25

wow only 13.4%

26

You gotta love it!! [cheers.gif]

27

The Fife Vineyards now belongs to Ledson Vindeyards. :slight_smile:


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28

Great note Rich!! I love aged Perite Sirah’s, but have never had one this old. Love old school Cali

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29

Fetzer and Turning Leaf were some of my earliest contact with US wines back in the late 80’s and early 90’s and set the stage for my appreciation.

My question is: I get the sense that Fetzer wasn’t a bargain bin brand at that time, when did that start? Was it still a family brand then?

30

It was a big family, lots of kids - and most worked at the winery. The late 70s/early 80s were their Zenith - with a remarkable run of single vineyards Zins. I did a ton of business with the family back then, with those single vineyard wines selling for under ten bucks, they were outrageous steals. And not sure if any of the old timers remember (who visited the estate back then) knew about the secret man cave out in the vineyards. I think it was called “Big Dog Saloon?” The Fetzer boys used to love taking their wholesale and retail customers out there and getting them stoned to the high heavens.

31

Wow, crazy, who woulda thunk!? Great note and pics!

32

Right! Very pleasant surprise for sure! Can’t recall what I paid at auction, but I don’t think it was very much either. Gotta love it when that happens!

33

I bought a lot of Fetzer red wines from the late 70’s thru at least the mid 80’s. I didn’t have a big wine budget and there were a lot of values, very inexpensive, even their cabs. I even cellared a lot of cab for a decade or more and they certainly improved.

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34

Here’s what I was able to find on the fly:

Mendocino County Wines blog
“Zina Hyde Cunningham”

“…[Steve] Ledson has a 5500 acre ranch called ‘Bald Hills’ high above Highway 253. And he purchased the Fife ‘Redhead vineyard’ in Redwood Valley.”


I believe that the “Ricetti Vineyard” is partially owned by Ledson as well.

35

When Brown Forman bought Fetzer in early 90s it became more of a commodity brand. Concha Y Toro bought it in early 2010s and hasn’t really succeeded in changing the price category they live in, but the wines are much better in bottle in the vein of…if you handed it to me at a wedding my next request wouldn’t beer…still too lowbrow for this site, regardless.

36

Picking at 24.4, my guess is the alcohol level was a tad higher than advertised . . . [snort.gif]

37

I’ve consistently found old PSs to taste less like PS and more like old clarets . . .

Cheers.

38

Back in the day, one of our go-to wines was Parducci Petite Sirah True Grit. Haven’t had one for a number of years now but they were always yummy. Must be a Mendo thing with P-S… Cheers!

39

Just had a really nice Washington State Syrah from the hot vintage of 2015 which stated 13.5% which would agree is the low end of the legal limit on that one!

40

I was thinking the same thing. A 0.58 conversion factor would put it at 14.2% unless he watered back.