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Wine Details
Price:
$17.99 per bottle
Description:
The 2002 Grands Amis Petite Sirah is a bold wine. The color is purple/red and has an intense depth. The bouquet focuses on raspberry and tart cherry fruit, with nuances of ripe plums and currents. There are hints of a citrus lemon/lime character and black pepper spice. The oak aromas are subtle, and are well integrated. The wine is exceptionally fleshy in the mouth with concentrated grape fruit flavors. The tannins are soft and supple, and the finish is lingering. This full bodied wine is enjoyable now, however, the flavors will continue to "marry" in the bottle, and will be intriguing for years to come.
The wine is composed of 98% petite sirah from the estate's Elk vineyards. These vines were hand nurtured and very low yielding, which led to the intensity of the flavors and tannins in the wine. Two percent of sirah grapes from the same vineyard were added to provide an additional tannin component. Finally, one percent each of carignane and zinfandel, both from the estate's Graffigna vineryard, were blended to complete the fruit profile. The wine was aged for 14 months in older American (40%) and French (60%) oak.
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Varietal Definition
Petite Sirah:
Petite Sirah is the same as the French variety known as Durif, a cross of Peloursin, with the true Syrah. A French nurseryman, Dr. François Durif, propagated the grape trying for resistance to powdery mildew and named it after himself, in the 1870s. Petite Sirah has long been an important blending grape, prized primarily for its deep color and fairly intense tannin. It is the variety most often chosen to blend into Zinfandel for added color, complexity, body, and to tone down the tendency of Zins toward "jammy" fruit.
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Carignane:
Carignane is one of the world’s most prolific wine varieties. Thriving in warm climates, Carignane was until the late 1970s, the most widely-planted red variety in California. Hailing from Aragon, Spain, this grape is capable of deeply-colored, extracted and tannic wines of considerable alcohol. It is a late-budder and does not ripen until late in the season. Highly prone to mildew disease, it requires long, dry growing conditions. It is often used as a blending component with other, more anemic, hot-climate varieties, like Grenache and Cinsault, which typically lack the deep pigment and extract which Carignane brings to the blend.
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Zinfandel:
Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California wine vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in the 'heel' of Italy. It is typically made into a robust red wine. Its taste depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruits like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas such as the Napa Valley, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas such as Sonoma County. Many Zinfandels come from head pruned ‘Old Vines’. ‘Old Vine’ is generally understood to mean a vine that is more than 50 years old and that produces less than three tons per acre. ‘Head Pruning’ is an old European style of pruning that trains the vine into the shape of a goblet. It requires no wires or other complex trellis systems. Head pruning spreads the fruit uniformly along the vine and allows light penetration.In the USA a semi-sweet Rosé (blush-style) wine called ‘White Zinfandel’ has achieved widespread popularity. In fact, this popularity has so outstripped all other forms that many fans think there is actually a grape called “White Zinfandel” (there isn’t)!
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