Petite Sirah

[misterjive]

I've always thought Bogle did a nice job with Petite Sirah. As for the differences between these grapes, the DNA information is revelatory. It's hard to argue with the Petite Sirah/Durif connection, or, for that matter, with recent findings like the primitivo/zin connection (when I first started drinking wine, opinions about the origin of zin were varied and debates in favor of one hypothesis or another were vociferous). Witness also the recent findings about the ignoble origins of noble chardonnay. DNA evidence is proving as useful and conclusive in the field of oenology as it has in the fields of criminology and genomics (as regards this last topic, investors know what I'm talking about!). Like my dad always says, "You can;t argue with your genes, boy" (please, no bad puns). Anyways...back to these grapes in particular--I agree with Innkeeper that the spotlight needs to be turned back towards Petite Sirah. I, too, get bummed when great varieties fade by the wayside. However, one truism is that when it comes to grapes, what goes around comes around. Twenty years from now, everyone just might start planting P.S. again. Then again, sometimes what goes around doesn't come around (not much of a truism, then, is it?). Canaiolo fades from the Italian scene, Malbec gets left out of Bordeaux (but grown with success thousands of miles away, but that's another story), and plantings of Pinot Gris are not what they used to be (in the 19th century, it was one of France's most popular grapes). We can bemoan certain instances of vanishing acreage (the Petite Sirah article in WS), but we can't always do much about these instances. We have ourselves (as a nation/market) to blame. I wish Americans drank less Chardonnay and more Riesling, less Merlot and more Pinot Noir, less Sauv Blanc and more Tokay P.G., but c'est la vie. We can only hope that Petite Sirah will make a comeback of sorts; I am heartened by the example of singular wines like Ridge Bridgehead Mataro. After all, everybody said that the new era of California winemaking would vanquish old-vine Mourvedre from the vineyards of Cali once and for all, but Paul Draper gave us an atavistic treat with this delicious wine.

One last note about Syrah versus Shiraz. The grapes of both are Syrah, but crucially, Shiraz is a clone of Syrah that is not only better-suited to the hot climate of Australia, but more robust in character as well. I used to use the terms synonymously, but to so is an error of omission; clones are the same AND different from the original grape. For example, Brunello di Montalcino is a brown-skinned clone of the Sangiovese grape, but we don't call Biondi-Santi bottlings of it "Sangiovese" for a reason.