How much has corked wine affected your perceptions?

Jan 31, 2006 6 Replies

I was just thinking, inspired by a post referencing petite syrah, about my feeling toward ps. As I remembered the taste, it struck me that what I tasted when trying Petite Syrah, was hardly good wine at all, but our friend TCA. My mental image is of a horribly corked bottle. It has been a good 6-7 years since I had it and the aversion is still strong.



I suppose it is probably time to give PS a try. What would be a good one and what can I expect of it. I believe it is different than syrah, but how different?


Petite Syrah is a big wine as many California Zins. I think they have traced the DNA to a grape called Durif, Hungarian in origin if memory serves - I'm sure to be corrected here if that is not the place. Not as "gamey" as a Zin can be, and I find generally lower in tannins. My favorite

*used* to be Hop Kiln - could go 10 years plus with positive results (they pulled their vines to plant Merlot :-/ ). They tend to be vinted as fruity and short lived and very pleasant. Now, my favorite would be Concannon (Livermore valley only, not central coast) and other widely available PSs are Bogle and Clay Station.

"Ronin" skrev i melding news:iLyDf.801$ snipped-for-privacy@news.uswest.net...

Found the following: The Durif grape was developed by Dr. Durif, a French nurseryman living in the south of France in the late 1800's. He created this new variety by crossing the Syrah grape with the Peloursin variety.

Anders

Thanks, I knew someone here would have the straight scoop! :-)

Correct, Anders. What is planted in CA as Petite Sirah/Syrah has been found to be variously Durif, Peloursin and occasionally clones of the true Syrah. Most of the plantings are Durif, but because of the age of many of these vinyards, often they are found as "field blends," planted with Zinfandel, Alicante Bouchet, etc.

Mark Lipton

Here's an interesting article on Petite Sirah along with some tasting notes courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle:

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