Petite Sirah

[Innkeeper]

In the current (March 31, 00) edition of Wine Spectator, James Laube has an article on Petite Sirah entitled "Something to Chew On", that jolted us into reality. It turns out that acreage of this grape has been reduced by two-thirds over the last twenty years. This should not be surprising. Back in the '80s people discovered that Sirah was not Syrah, the wonderful grape gave us all those sumptuous upper Rhone wines. Rather Petite Sirah was really an obscure, ugly, lower Rhone grape called Durif. Simultaneously, our friends the Aussies started seriously marketing their Shiraz, which was the real thing; and counterparts in California immediately started planting that real thing. All of this, suddenly closed the gate on Petite Sirah.

The problem with this scenario is we remember loving Sirah. Back in the Seventies, makers of Zin were into "Big" Zin. Their aficionados could not, in their heads, reconcile "Little" Sirah with the monstrous Zins. This was the oxymoron that started the demise of Sirah long before Syrah and Shiraz ever came along. Actually, as Laube points out, the big "littles" such as Turley's could crush all but a few of those Zins. We fondly remember many quaffing priced Petites that could that take a layer or two of enamel off your teeth.

Without taking anything away from the Upper Rhone, California, or Australian Syrah/Siraz', let's band together to save another completely different grape/wine, the Petite Sirah. We happen to love "ugly" Lower Rhone grapes. Foppiano's is available most places. There are a handful of others, including Turley's at $136.00, on "Pop's" California Rhone Rangers page. Laube mentioned some of these and others in his article. If any of you have other recommendations, let's hear them. We have a grape to save.