The price of this seems to have gone up, and the quality not so much - I enjoyed previous vintages more. This is still a nice Petite Sirah and I typically like the power and the fact that this can show well on the 2nd day.
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Nice wine, lots of extract, the tannins are a bit green. Tightly wound midpalate would benefit from a couple years of bottle age. Peak drinking probably 2025-2028.
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Tasted blind. This wine is very GSM-like and very good. Powerful black pepper, violet, sweet berry fruit, and gamey aromas. I feel like this is a southern Rhone wine. Not as thick, savory, and brown as typical Chateauneuf du Pape, but more complex and serious than typical Cotes du Rhone. While it tastes rather young, and tannins are a bit gritty, I think it’s ready to drink now. Rating: 93
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Black cherry, liquorice, spiced plum & cedarwood with red berries. Full bodied with integrated tannins, dark berries and black cherry. Good structure, early in its drinking window and approachable now. Medium to long finish. Very good example.
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Inky. Grilled beef, black fruits, Middle Eastern spice mix - ras el hanout. A whiff of VA when the cork was pulled. A little bit of creamy oak after an hour in the glass. Lots of sweet, ripe fruit. Remarkably soft for a young PS. Popped and poured but good to go. A bit peppery. Somewhere between medium and rich in weight. Very attractive. Juicy.Not particularly long but good enough. Very nice with a Shake Shack Shack Stack. 94% Petite Sirah, 4% Zinfandel.
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Wow, what a beaut! I usually shy away from PS, but this one is enticing, vibrant, complex and just damned good. Saucy nose with fresh cherry and blackberry fruit mixed with roasted herbs and earth. Nice concentration on the palate, has this surprisingly vibrant acidity, which sets the stage well for the tangy blackberry and blueberry fruit. Deep earth, spice and herbal tones. Wow, I'd love to see this in five or seven years.
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Do you get annoyed when wine critics keep using the word "hedonistic"? What the heck do they mean, anyway? But what else can I call this wine when it kept calling me back to the bottle to pour just a little bit more into my glass?
Maybe a Petite Sirah can only be "so good". Maybe it wont have the incisiveness, the clarity of flavor that a great Cabernet or Syrah might have. But this was incredibly satisfying.
Let's start with the aromatics when there's wine in the glass. Clean, pure dark red fruit, with some purple and black fruit are there. Maybe a hint of cedar that's well mixed in and not out of place.
The taste has big dark red fruit that's very dry, and hands off well to a refreshing finish. The tannin structure is fine grained and dusty. Maybe there's a little smoke and pepper there. The kind of thing you'd like to see in a pricy Napa Cabernet.
But the great aeromatics really show themselves after you've finished your glass of wine. You can still smell the fruit with the trace of wine that's still in there, but now you can also smell a little bit of black tea and potpourri.
Maybe this can't equal a top Cabernet, but it's definitely a great Petite Sirah. Drink this so you can keep your top Bordeaux, Napa Cabs, $100 Washington Cabs, etc., in your wine fridge or cellar.
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Very dark. Cherry, earth, smoke, blueberry, blackberry. Complex flavors , Fuller body, more complex. More tannins showing in a long finish. It has 6% zinfandel and it shows up in the finish. Good now, but better in a few years.
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Delicious and clearly thoughtfully made- lacking some of the focus, power, and elegance of 2016 in my opinion, but still solid QPR in the mid-$30 range if you're looking for something to go with a weeknight steak.
The 2016 struck me as being very "confident", with powerful, elegant character: fresh blueberry and cassis fruit, the best kind of cedary oak, menthol, plenty of minerals and acidity harmonizing with intense but fine-grained tannins. Even tasted with more distractions, made a bigger impact on me.
This was great too, just a little more disjointed. Nose started off more jammy, black cherry cola and blueberry pie mingling with more generic vanilla oak, maybe light coffee, a little imbalanced although still pretty. After time, a very nice, lifted floral tone came out on the nose, then traces of pepper and menthol (this menthol balances the ripe fruit, something in common with the 2016.) A touch of high-toned smoke, like a citronella candle.
Palate is a surprisingly intense wash of BRIGHT fruit at first, almost strawberry (I wonder if this is the pinch of Zinfandel talking?), before relaxing into something like plum. Acidity is really nice and present, but the tannins are really wild, distracting and need some fatty food to help calm them down, or perhaps some aging. Much better overall on day 2 as the tannins relaxed slightly, and the deep blueberry was able to mesh better with the oak, although some of the floral/peppery nuances had also disappeared.
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Color: dark purple Nose: plum, black pepper, overripe black cherry, blackberry jam, a hint of toasted chocolate, a very slight green note, liquorice Palate: it's a bomb. Tanins quite prominent though fine-grained. Body is full though texture is quite light. Confirms the nose on the aromas with the black cherry and pepper I think most forward. There is some sweetness and oak though we'll integrated Finish: medium
Masterful wine from ridge - deeply new world with the sweetness but so so much power. I opened this young admittedly but it was a good experience, not overwhelming tannins and very nice fruit.
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Skipping the numeric for now. We bought 6 for a party, and have 3 left. They were not universally acclaimed, but enjoyed by several people. I found the mouth-feel/taste tight, slightly flat, dry and showing promise. We did NOT decant and the bottles did not stay open very long, so conditions were not ideal.
I did not find fruit, but stronger flavors, including a medium amount of tannin and maybe tobacco -- nothing sweet and no tar -- possibly earth, but not dusty earth. It was dark in color and flavor. I am saving the remainder for at least 3 years (and put a 2023-24 minimum year) before I try again, as it feels like there was a lot of flavor somewhere, but it hadn't developed out yet. But enough people enjoyed it that I will likely put another few bottles away. (Recently tried 2015, liked it a lot, as it had a more diverse flavor profile, which helps the decision to buy up.)
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Tons of tannin, as expected from a petite syrah. I get more of smokes meat and something iron like reminiscent of blood on the nose. Flavors of chocolate, espresso, blueberry. Mouthfeel is grippy with lots of acid providing structure to an otherwise moderate weight wine.
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Durif. If you know, you know! Deep red. Nose with suede leather, dark fruit, and syrup. Pepper, tobacco, and licorice. On the palate, it opens as a bit malolactic, with sweet notes but it blows away with air. Dark fruit, pepper, and tar. Relatively short with a dry finish.
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Pitch black. 13.8% ABV. 94% Petite Sirah and 6% Zinfandel. Savory nose of black fruits, creosote, wet pavement and spice. Full bodied with strong acidity. Dark and brooding with copious tannins. Blackberry, blueberry, dark chocolate and barbecued meats on the palate. The finish is long with chalky tannins. Somewhat approachable now but this wine will age effortlessly for at least a decade.
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1/18/2024 - John McCabe wrote: 92 Points
The price of this seems to have gone up, and the quality not so much - I enjoyed previous vintages more. This is still a nice Petite Sirah and I typically like the power and the fact that this can show well on the 2nd day.
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1/26/2023 - Giggs wrote: 92 Points
Noticeably improved from 6 months ago and/or a better bottle. Similarly dense extract but less impact from tannins. 2025+ still a good target.
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11/11/2022 - Dan Gould Likes this wine: 92 Points
Smooth mouth feel, with figs, mint, mixed with mild oak. Definitely some minerality that offers a second thought about what you're tasting
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7/24/2022 - Giggs wrote: 91 Points
Nice wine, lots of extract, the tannins are a bit green. Tightly wound midpalate would benefit from a couple years of bottle age. Peak drinking probably 2025-2028.
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5/4/2022 - rmalloy wrote: 93 Points
Tasted blind. This wine is very GSM-like and very good. Powerful black pepper, violet, sweet berry fruit, and gamey aromas. I feel like this is a southern Rhone wine. Not as thick, savory, and brown as typical Chateauneuf du Pape, but more complex and serious than typical Cotes du Rhone. While it tastes rather young, and tannins are a bit gritty, I think it’s ready to drink now. Rating: 93
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12/27/2021 - winers4 Likes this wine:
Black cherry, liquorice, spiced plum & cedarwood with red berries. Full bodied with integrated tannins, dark berries and black cherry. Good structure, early in its drinking window and approachable now. Medium to long finish. Very good example.
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2/10/2021 - Mike6743 Likes this wine: 90 Points
Expected to be more complex, but was just good, not great
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2/7/2021 - winesteward Likes this wine: 91 Points
Inky. Grilled beef, black fruits, Middle Eastern spice mix - ras el hanout. A whiff of VA when the cork was pulled. A little bit of creamy oak after an hour in the glass. Lots of sweet, ripe fruit. Remarkably soft for a young PS. Popped and poured but good to go. A bit peppery. Somewhere between medium and rich in weight. Very attractive. Juicy.Not particularly long but good enough. Very nice with a Shake Shack Shack Stack. 94% Petite Sirah, 4% Zinfandel.
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1/13/2021 - isaacjamesbaker wrote: 92 Points
Wow, what a beaut! I usually shy away from PS, but this one is enticing, vibrant, complex and just damned good. Saucy nose with fresh cherry and blackberry fruit mixed with roasted herbs and earth. Nice concentration on the palate, has this surprisingly vibrant acidity, which sets the stage well for the tangy blackberry and blueberry fruit. Deep earth, spice and herbal tones. Wow, I'd love to see this in five or seven years.
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12/30/2020 - camdawg Likes this wine: 92 Points
Do you get annoyed when wine critics keep using the word "hedonistic"? What the heck do they mean, anyway? But what else can I call this wine when it kept calling me back to the bottle to pour just a little bit more into my glass?
Maybe a Petite Sirah can only be "so good". Maybe it wont have the incisiveness, the clarity of flavor that a great Cabernet or Syrah might have. But this was incredibly satisfying.
Let's start with the aromatics when there's wine in the glass. Clean, pure dark red fruit, with some purple and black fruit are there. Maybe a hint of cedar that's well mixed in and not out of place.
The taste has big dark red fruit that's very dry, and hands off well to a refreshing finish. The tannin structure is fine grained and dusty. Maybe there's a little smoke and pepper there. The kind of thing you'd like to see in a pricy Napa Cabernet.
But the great aeromatics really show themselves after you've finished your glass of wine. You can still smell the fruit with the trace of wine that's still in there, but now you can also smell a little bit of black tea and potpourri.
Maybe this can't equal a top Cabernet, but it's definitely a great Petite Sirah. Drink this so you can keep your top Bordeaux, Napa Cabs, $100 Washington Cabs, etc., in your wine fridge or cellar.
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9/20/2020 - gharter Likes this wine: 91 Points
Very dark. Cherry, earth, smoke, blueberry, blackberry. Complex flavors , Fuller body, more complex. More tannins showing in a long finish. It has 6% zinfandel and it shows up in the finish. Good now, but better in a few years.
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8/25/2020 - sid_loves_wine Likes this wine: 93 Points
Delicious and clearly thoughtfully made- lacking some of the focus, power, and elegance of 2016 in my opinion, but still solid QPR in the mid-$30 range if you're looking for something to go with a weeknight steak.
The 2016 struck me as being very "confident", with powerful, elegant character: fresh blueberry and cassis fruit, the best kind of cedary oak, menthol, plenty of minerals and acidity harmonizing with intense but fine-grained tannins. Even tasted with more distractions, made a bigger impact on me.
This was great too, just a little more disjointed. Nose started off more jammy, black cherry cola and blueberry pie mingling with more generic vanilla oak, maybe light coffee, a little imbalanced although still pretty. After time, a very nice, lifted floral tone came out on the nose, then traces of pepper and menthol (this menthol balances the ripe fruit, something in common with the 2016.) A touch of high-toned smoke, like a citronella candle.
Palate is a surprisingly intense wash of BRIGHT fruit at first, almost strawberry (I wonder if this is the pinch of Zinfandel talking?), before relaxing into something like plum. Acidity is really nice and present, but the tannins are really wild, distracting and need some fatty food to help calm them down, or perhaps some aging. Much better overall on day 2 as the tannins relaxed slightly, and the deep blueberry was able to mesh better with the oak, although some of the floral/peppery nuances had also disappeared.
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7/30/2020 - Blauweiss Likes this wine: 90 Points
Dark fruits, sweet plum, hints of oak, a tad meaty. Very rich but also well balanced with nice tannin and acidity that makes it juicy and friendly.
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6/22/2020 - PeterDean17 wrote: 90 Points
Nose of Dark fruit and pepper. Big and dry
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5/17/2020 - stet Likes this wine: 90 Points
Color: dark purple
Nose: plum, black pepper, overripe black cherry, blackberry jam, a hint of toasted chocolate, a very slight green note, liquorice
Palate: it's a bomb. Tanins quite prominent though fine-grained. Body is full though texture is quite light. Confirms the nose on the aromas with the black cherry and pepper I think most forward. There is some sweetness and oak though we'll integrated
Finish: medium
Masterful wine from ridge - deeply new world with the sweetness but so so much power. I opened this young admittedly but it was a good experience, not overwhelming tannins and very nice fruit.
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3/30/2020 - Nobody does it better wrote:
mistake
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2/24/2020 - JM_IS Likes this wine:
Skipping the numeric for now. We bought 6 for a party, and have 3 left. They were not universally acclaimed, but enjoyed by several people. I found the mouth-feel/taste tight, slightly flat, dry and showing promise. We did NOT decant and the bottles did not stay open very long, so conditions were not ideal.
I did not find fruit, but stronger flavors, including a medium amount of tannin and maybe tobacco -- nothing sweet and no tar -- possibly earth, but not dusty earth. It was dark in color and flavor. I am saving the remainder for at least 3 years (and put a 2023-24 minimum year) before I try again, as it feels like there was a lot of flavor somewhere, but it hadn't developed out yet. But enough people enjoyed it that I will likely put another few bottles away. (Recently tried 2015, liked it a lot, as it had a more diverse flavor profile, which helps the decision to buy up.)
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2/22/2020 - Eatmypixels Likes this wine: 89 Points
At winery. Good. Nothing special. But happy to drink. Had seconds of others from them
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1/21/2020 - mrkurtz Likes this wine: 90 Points
Tons of tannin, as expected from a petite syrah. I get more of smokes meat and something iron like reminiscent of blood on the nose. Flavors of chocolate, espresso, blueberry. Mouthfeel is grippy with lots of acid providing structure to an otherwise moderate weight wine.
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1/8/2020 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Another Year, Another Napa (aka Winter in Wineland IV); 1/5/2020-1/11/2020 (Napa/Sonoma California): The most recent release and super young (in comparison can tell that the '09 and '12 have settled a bit more although they also come across as young). Lots of the pepper and fruit and in this case I'm starting to get just a hint of floral. Drinkable now, but will benefit with time.
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1/7/2020 - Torchy wrote: 90 Points
Durif. If you know, you know! Deep red. Nose with suede leather, dark fruit, and syrup. Pepper, tobacco, and licorice. On the palate, it opens as a bit malolactic, with sweet notes but it blows away with air. Dark fruit, pepper, and tar. Relatively short with a dry finish.
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11/9/2019 - Ben Christiansen wrote:
Wow.
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9/20/2019 - tomlee wrote: 93 Points
Pitch black. 13.8% ABV. 94% Petite Sirah and 6% Zinfandel. Savory nose of black fruits, creosote, wet pavement and spice. Full bodied with strong acidity. Dark and brooding with copious tannins. Blackberry, blueberry, dark chocolate and barbecued meats on the palate. The finish is long with chalky tannins. Somewhat approachable now but this wine will age effortlessly for at least a decade.
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3/24/2019 - Omar Khayyam wrote:
Dream Big - Discover California Wine Tasting (Stockholm, Gamla Riksarkivet (old government archives building) March 2019): The most dark and intense of the ridge reds, heavily structured. Needs cellaring - and a steak! Recommended if you like big wines and steak.
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3/11/2019 - "Rhône Rider" Likes this wine: 88 Points
Kjernefrukt, solbær, plommer på nese. Mye fruktkaos i munn. Kirsebær, kirsebærsteiner, plommer, bringebær. Syrlig og finkornet struktur. Lang. 88
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