Sometimes, the most wonderful creations emerge from random, happy hybrids. Take the cross-pollination of Peloursin and Syrah vines which French botanist François Durif discovered. He produced a delicious new grape variety, worthy of his own name: Durif, also know as Petite Sirah. And there begins your journey of discovery: taste the full-bodied, generous and lively flavours, like blackcurrant and plums balanced with spicy toasted integrated oak.
Though midnight black at the core, this wine is impressively fruit-driven on the nose with oodles of ripe blackberry and cassis aromas. The round palate tacks on licorice, flint and truffle. Chiseled acidity and firm but seamless tannins give this wine staying power. Oak tones of toasted multi-grain bread and caramel grace the lingering finish. Drink now–2022.
Stags’ Leap Winery’s Petite Syrah comes from a 1920s-era field blend, which also includes small amounts of other Rhône varietals including syrah (8%), grenache (4%) and viognier (2%). The resulting wine is a rich purple color with a decadent nose full of blueberry and blackberry fruit and hints of cocoa. In the mouth, the wine is vibrant and expressive, continuing to display black fruits and chocolate with additional notes of espresso and spice. Structured, but balanced, this is an intense wine that will really start to show its stuff with a little bottle age.
Like elephants whose size is imposing, Petite Petit is large! A blend of 85% Petite Sirah and 15% Petit Verdot. Offering a joyous explosion of color and fun, it is a substantial, dense, full-bodied, whopper style of wine loaded with pure black fruit and vanilla flavors that coat the palate. It reveals remarkable richness with a finish that is slightly dry and seems to linger.
