'99 Fife Redhead Petite Sirah

[ddf68]

Monster wine alert. Dark purple color, big sweet oaky nose. Initially almost impossible to tast anything but tannin. After about half an hour the fruit started fighting back. There were still huge reefs of tannin, but there was enough ripe berry fruit to give some impression of balance. I think there was probably some oak on the palate as well, but it was hard to tell.

Big and oaky is usually not my thing, but this one I liked. If you buy any, make sure to give it its own bin in the cellar. Otherwise, it will push the other wines down and take their lunch money.

BTW, unlikely as it seems, this made a decent match with roasted elk in a sort of demi-glace wanna be sauce.

ddf