1996 Stags' Leap Petite Syrah
Written: Feb 25 '00 (Updated Feb 25 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of potential. A big, dense, filling mouth of black cherry, hints of various sweet fruits and peppery spice
Cons: Aggressive, tannic, a bit tough; also stained the heck out of my teeth
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| Lambira's Full Review: Stag's Leap Petite Syrah 1996 |
This February Leap Year CTO harnessed the power of two mighty animals: the Stag and the Frog. Part two of my CTO experience found me in our green overstuffed easy chair (an appropriate throne for the temporary Queen of Wine, I thought) in front of the television watching a taped episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and licking my chops in anticipation of a fabtabulously robust red wine experience. Here, as in my review of the other wine (1998 Frog’s Leap Sauvignon Blanc), I would be remiss if I didn’t give shout-outs to the rest of the Wine Posse, a crew of talented G’s who went to great lengths to get these wine for the drinkin’. Please read their reviews as well; a big part of the fun is to see who agreed, who disagreed, and who was too tipsy after two bottles to make a coherent argument either way:
Leah
Nomad Scry
PeterLRuden
cornelia
elegiac
forkids
kimmiko
stonehousellc
sweetpaulie.
Before I talk about the wine, I need to mention a minor detail that’s been confusing me for a while: Stags’ Leap spells it Petite Syrah. The standard spelling is Petite S-I-R-A-H. Is their Petite Syrah different than a Petite Sirah? Did anybody else notice? Did anybody else care?
The answers to these questions are probably yes and no. The spelling confusion probably comes from the fact that (as you probably already know) there is a Syrah varietal as well. They are entirely different vines, and although both are robust red wines, they are perceived as having different flavor characteristics. Pets are usually billed as bigger and more peppery than Syrahs, which are seen by some as having harder, shorter finishes.
In my research on this varietal, I found out that the Petite Sirah vine was the result of a forbidden romance between a two different vines tended by a fellow named Durif in the 1800s. Apparently the question of which two vines in particular has been raging for yonks, and was just settled by advanced DNA testing in ’98. The mama was Peloursin, the papa was Syrah. This new, half-breed vine also had the distinction of being resistant to a widespread vine fungal disease called downy mildew. Although this disease is no longer as much of a problem in the wine industry, it does occasionally strike the linens department at Bed Bath & Beyond.
Mildew resistance aside, this vine apparently never impressed the French much, which is surprising considering their love for the fusty comedy of Jerry Lewis. So us plucky Americans imported it into California in the late 1800s. Stags’ Leap Winery, a 50,000 case per year producer in Napa Valley, has some of the oldest Petite Sirah vines in California, and Petite Syrah (although they only produced 10,696 cases this year) is considered one of their premier varietals. So what are the deeper meanings of the fact that they choose to call their version Petite Syrah? Well, you’ll have to Oprahanalyize the mind of winemaker Robert Brittan to find out the true answer. But based on my experience with this wine, I’d say that they’re trying to make a sort of ‘best of both worlds’ statement: a syrah wearing pet’s clothing, or something to that effect. I zipped over to their website, http://www.stagsleapwinery.com, to check out the winemaker’s notes. Following are some excerpts:
“Three different selections of Petite Syrah clones inter-planted with a multi-ethnic population of other Rhône varietals including Syrah, Carignane, Grenache, Peloursin, and (insert: the proportion of each type of grape is as follows: Petite Syrah 76%; Syrah 22%; Carignane 2%. ) combine to make a unique wine that speaks of the 60-year old vineyard at the Stags' Leap Winery estate.
As with its predecessors, the grapes for the 1996 Stags' Leap Winery Petite Syrah were harvested together and co-fermented. Winemaker Robert Brittan is convinced that the grapes give and extract more complex flavors and structure when vinified together. After aging the wine in American Oak barrels, he added additional Syrah to bring out a meaty component and some Carignane to highlight the wine's fruitiness.”
To drink this, we decanted the bottle and let it sit for roughly an hour. The light of the feeble kitchen lamp was unable to penetrate the deep, inky reddish-purple color of the wine. Being the Curious Jen that I usually am, I had to dip my feet in the pool, so to speak, and had myself a little sniff and taste when I first poured the wine. What had come out of the bottle was like a crouching tiger: restless, but with a promising whiff of sweetness; black cherry, citrus fruits. The taste was aggressive and tough but exciting, with the tannins fighting for dominance and not really allowing for any of the subtle hints of flavor to shine through. I set down the carafe and backed slowly away so as not to make it angry. And I let it sit.
After about an hour, I cautiously went back into the kitchen to see if it had destroyed the place. I was ready to give it another try. Again, I found that the wine was still a restless and powerful, but a bit more restive. The fruits were allowed to peek out from behind the curtain more; cherries, and oranges. There was also more vanilla and other sweet things lurking which I couldn’t quite identify. In the mouth, the tannins had backed down a little as well to allow appealing flavors of raspberry, blackberry, and citrus to come forward a little more. I tasted pepper, but not as much as I would have expected. It’s a big, dense mouthful, with a medium-long finish that left me the impression of smoky meats and some lingering sweetness.
Overall a promising, full-bodied, moderately complex wine. I am saving my other two bottles in my mom’s cellar and will drink them in a year or two. I don’t want to wait too long because I don’t want it to get TOO mellow; it’s quite a mouthful; I found it to be a great way to wrap up the CTO. This has been a lot of fun, and I wish you all could have seen what names my spell check suggested that I put in place of your epinions handles. Cheers, everyone, and happy drinking!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Lambira
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Location: bumble
Reviews written: 133
Trusted by: 306 members
About Me:
Finicky and allergy-ridden, I often display a holier-than-thou attitude to compensate for a boring life.
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