Friday, November 27, 2015

The mark of a good wine.

A few nights ago, Vinomaker and I polished off this bottle of Markham Vineyards Petite Sirah. If I hadn't seen Vinomaker pull the cork with my own eyes, I would not have believed that this wine was from the 1994 vintage.  As is fairly common place in Vinoland, Vinomaker had no idea when, or how, he had acquired this wine - I'm just happy that he did.
Yes, I know Petite Sirah is usually big and bold, exhibits deep, inky pigmentation and is redolent with robust chalky-tannins, but I had no idea that this wine varietal could age so well.  A well made and balanced wine ought to age gracefully (if cellared well, of course), but unfortunately this is not always the case.  Still very fruit forward, and with a lovely spiciness, this wine did not betray its age, it was simply fantastic. And it paired wonderfully well with our dinner of Beef Stroganoff.

6 comments:

New Hampshire Wineman said...

Nice! Sounds like this Petite Sirah could go further! And gives me hope for the several older Petite Sirahs I have in the cellar. I've had my eye on a Ridge PS for over a year as I wait for it to go on sale.

Markham 1994 Petite Sirah (A)!

New Hampshire Wineman said...

I went ahead and posted a link of this to my Petite Sirah posting from 2012:
NHWM

About Last Weekend said...

Thanks for this; good one to note.

Vinogirl said...

NHW: Yes, I think this PS still has plenty of life left in it. Thanks for linking my post to your blog.

ALW: Welcome back to Vinsanity.
Although a 1994 Markham Petite Sirah would probably be impossible to find, the winery still produces a PS, so a much younger vintage could be yours.

New Hampshire Wineman said...

Wow, it's been almost a year sine you've mentioned Petite Sirah!
Well, here's something interesting for you: Shafer Petite Sirah (4 years in barrels):
S-PetiteS

Vinogirl said...

NHW: Haven't had a PS since then.
Read about this new venture recently in the local newspaper, interesting.