Saturday, December 23, 2006

2004 Trentadue PETITE SIRAH "North Coast" (California)

A nice, relatively accessible Petite Sirah. Dense black ruby, saturated to the rim, with purple highlights. Rich, sweet, earthy blackberry and cassis nose, with pencil lead notes . . . smelled almost like a densely-extracted Cabernet. Medium to full-bodied, with lots of ripe tannin. Concentrated, focused flavors of cassis, pencil lead, and charcoal (again with the Cabernet-like thing going on!). Fairly long finish. Will certainly keep and improve in a cool cellar over the next five years.

Although Petite Sirahs can be overly tannic and require lots of time in the bottle to drop that tannin, this one was clearly made to be friendly right away. Back label says the fruit was from Mendocino and Lake counties. 88+. Was $17.99 at Cova, on Kirby (which, by the way, looks to be an interesting wine bar/tapas joint/wine shop -- I'll have to eat there soon).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just happened upon your blog. Nice place you have here. I am also in Houston and a transplant from the Northeast. The Trentadue is a great little wine. I had it at Cova and loved it. Specs supposedly can get it at a case price of around $15-$16. I have been trying to get them to order one for me for two weeks.

Dennis