May 17, 2024 - Opaque red (does PS ever lose its color?). Lots of tannins and acid. Grape juice nose. Dark fruits primarily. Possibly needed more air to come alive. This would be a good steak wine.
May 17, 2024 - Double blind. Chocolate, clay and dusty earth notes. Full-bodied with flavors of plum, black fruit and chocolate. Slightly ripe, but not overly so. Takes on a kirsch/liqueur element as it breathes. (J2)
December 24, 2023 - Double decanted a magnum back into the bottle and served at a party. There was some nice body to this wine as well as a touch of alcohol. I feel Switchback wines are typically lush, fruity and modern, and although this was pleasant with some earth, I don't think this is holding up all that well, even from magnum. It could also be the 2003 vintage, just a bad combination of age, style and vintage. I had a similar and even worse experience with a regular bottle of 2006 recently. and a 2007 a couple years ago.
April 15, 2021 - My first bottle of the 2003 since I was infatuated with Switchback PS @12-15 years ago. Back then I drank all I got. Found this at auction and had to buy it. Full bodied, still noticeable tannin, and thankfully still delicious dark fruits. Not the outrageous concentrated fruit bomb of 15 years ago but it went beautifully with filet mignon.
October 21, 2019 - Blackberry sauce, chocolate liqueur, vanilla, and soy sauce. The fruit is nice but the wine's extraction, alcohol, and oak is a bit too much for me. Nice, but not my style.
November 27, 2016 - Wonderful nose of dark fruit and asphalt. Really big in the mouth but not over the top, with a great peppery kick at the end. A bit harsh on day 1, but smoother and just delicious on day 2.
April 14, 2016 - Again...jumps out of the glass with nose of PURPLE fruit, spice, bacon fat, oh, the things! Just an all around people pleaser, this wine. I must find more! More!
November 24, 2015 - They should just not bother to put vintage dates on Petite Sirah. The wines just don't age! This one, 12 years old, is still youthful, fruity, dense, dark as a moonless night, voluptuous, sexy, spicy, and almost perfect for the varietal. What can I say. Enjoy more Petite Sirah in your life and you'll enjoy your life more. Amen.
March 29, 2015 - As I mentioned 2 years ago, I like this vintage. Still a big wine, though. I love the asphalt, black and blue fruit aromas and flavors. Some heat at the finish.
March 28, 2015 - My last one. Opened about an hour ago, and man, this is of a leaner expression which matches my perception of the wine from a few years back, too. Has the dark SR fruit, but it's almost crunchy-like and chalked with iron and tension. Fortunately, this will be poured about 4 hours from now, and we'll see how it does. More syrah like at this point that what can often be decadence for SR PS.....another 24 hrs of slow ox air and having finished dinner, just enjoying now this wine as a nightcap, so to speak. I know these wines can get big, sometimes even boozy for me, but this 2003 is just fine. At room temp, and I let all the cellar chill fall off this wine and allowed it to get to room temp (70f), there is no booze signature here at all. Lots of dark blackberry, some dark plum and light chocolate, iron and a light brushing of tannin. This is listed at 14.8% on the bottle, and I would offer this is pretty close, maybe a few tenths into 15% but this is not the 'big' kind of SR: dark, lots of fruit but isn't as dense as the bigger years. This is now over 10 years old and is for me drinking great, with some light structure. Make of that what you want and I do like to drink my wines younger, so with that said, I say this is in a nice spot.